Lewis Hamilton scored a fabulous victory for McLaren in a Chinese race of excellent drives, catching and passing Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel on the 52nd of the 56 laps as the reigning world champion’s gamble on a two-stop strategy – and a 25-lap run on Pirelli’s hard rubber – just failed to pay off.
Behind them, Mark Webber drove a brilliant race from 18th to third in the second Red Bull, only seven seconds behind Hamilton, after catching and despatching Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, then doing the same to Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, Nico Rosberg in the second Mercedes and McLaren’s Jenson Button in the closing stages.