HAMILTON SEALS FIRST F1 HAT-TRICK
I was thinking 'am I seeing things?' I looked up as I was coming across the line expecting to do another lap and I saw a chequered flag
SHANGHAI (AFP) - Lewis Hamilton sealed his first hat-trick of Formula One wins and led Mercedes to their third straight one-two finish at the Chinese Grand Prix as the team tightened their grip on the season yesterday.
The former world champion got away smoothly from pole and was rarely troubled as he finished 18 seconds ahead of his team-mate Nico Rosberg, with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso third.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo outran his team-mate and reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel for fourth spot, with the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg coming home in sixth.
But there was a bizarre finish when Hamilton was inadvertently shown the chequered flag early, meaning that the race was later declared over after 54 laps instead of the 56 completed.
“I was thinking ' am I seeing things?' I looked up as I was coming across the line expecting to do another lap and I saw a chequered flag,” said Hamilton.
“I asked the team, ' Was there a flag? And they said 'No' and I kept going,” he added.
The mishap did not change any race positions apart from Caterham's Kamui Kobayashi, who was demoted from 17th to 18th after his late pass on Jules Bianchi was ruled out.
And it did not adversely affect Hamilton, who had a huge grin after his 25th grand prix win which takes him past legendary Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio and level with Niki Lauda and Jim Clark.
Although he has now racked up consecutive wins in Malaysia, Bahrain and now China, the Briton still trails Rosberg by four points in the standings as he seeks to regain his 2008 world title.
“I can't believe how amazing the car is. I was able to look after the tyres and then I was racing myself,” said Hamilton.
Rosberg retained his championship lead with a dogged second place after fighting past the Red Bulls and Alonso despite telemetry problems and an early bump.
For Ferrari, their first podium of the season was sweetly timed for new team principal Marco Mattiacci, who replaced Stefano Domenicali this week.
But there was more woe for McLaren when both Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen finished out of the points.
No one was able to come close to Hamilton, who powered away from pole position and in dry, cool conditions, had a four-second cushion by lap six.
Behind him Vettel moved up from third past his team-mate Ricciardo, as did Alonso who got a flying start in the Ferrari.