CHINESE GRAND PRIX AT THE SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT:

Lap distance: 5.451km. Total distance: 305.066km (56 laps)

Race lap record: Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari one minute 32.238 seconds (2004) 2014 pole: Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes

2014 winner: Hamilton Start time: 8am SA time Tyres: Medium (white), soft (yellow)

WINS

Sebastian Vettel’s victory for Ferrari in Malaysia (race two of 19) was the German’s first for the Italian team and their first since 2013. Vettel is the 38th driver to win for Ferrari since the championship started in 1950, and the third German after Michael Schumacher and Wolfgang von Trips. The four-time world champion now has 40 career wins, Hamilton 34, Fernando Alonso 32, Kimi Raikkonen 20 and Jenson Button 15. One more win would put Vettel third overall and level with the late Brazilian triple world champion Ayrton Senna in the all-time lists. Malaysia ended Mercedes’s run of eight successive race wins. It was the first time since 2013 that a team other than Mercedes or Red Bull had won. Ferrari have won 222 races, McLaren 182, Williams 114 and Red Bull 50. Mercedes have won 30. McLaren have not won for 40 races, a run that dates back to Brazil 2012. They went 48 races without a win from 1993-97.

POLE POSITION

Mercedes have now been on pole for the last 13 races. The record for successive poles is 24 (Williams 1992/93). Mercedes and Williams were the only teams to start on pole last year. Ferrari’s last pole was in Germany with Alonso in 2012.

POINTS

Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen, aged 17 years five months and 27 days, became the youngest driver to score points in Formula One by finishing seventh at Sepang. The previous record was held by Russian Daniil Kvyat, who was 19 when he scored in Australia last year. Verstappen’s teammate Carlos Sainz also finished in the points in Malaysia, becoming only the fifth driver in the last 10 years to score points in his first

two races.

CHINA

The race made its debut on the calendar in 2004 and six of the 11 Chinese Grands Prix have been won from pole. No driver has ever won in China two years in a row. Hamilton is the most successful there with three wins (2008, 2011, 2014), while Alonso has two (2005, 2013). Ferrari have won four times, McLaren three. Button and Alonso are the only drivers to have finished every Chinese Grand Prix. Only four times has the winner in China gone on to take the title that year. Button (in 2010) is the only driver to have won in China while reigning world champion. The 1.17km back straight is the longest on the current Formula One calendar. Hamilton won last year with a two-stop strategy. Rosberg took his first F1 pole and win in China in 2012. The circuit also saw Red Bull’s first F1 win in 2009.

MILESTONE

Malaysia was Hamilton’s 150th grand prix start.