| 2014 Chinese Grand Prix | |||||
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Race 4 of 19 in the2014 Formula One World Championship
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 Layout of theShanghai International Circuit | |||||
| Race details | |||||
| Date | 20 April 2014 | ||||
| Official name | 2014 Formula 1 UBSChinese Grand Prix[1] | ||||
| Location | Shanghai International Circuit Shanghai,People's Republic of China | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 5.451 km (3.387 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 54 laps, 294.164 km (182.785 miles) | ||||
| Scheduled distance | 56 laps, 305.066 km (189.559 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Mostly cloudy, dry | ||||
| Attendance | 150,000 | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Mercedes | ||||
| Time | 1:53.860 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | |||
| Time | 1:40.402 on lap 39 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Mercedes | ||||
| Second | Mercedes | ||||
| Third | Ferrari | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2014 Chinese Grand Prix (formally the2014 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix)[1] was aFormula Onemotor race that was held on 20 April 2014 at theShanghai International Circuit,Shanghai,China. The race was the fourth round of the2014 Formula One season, and marked the eleventh time that theChinese Grand Prix was held as a round for the Formula One World Championship.
Lewis Hamilton won the race comfortably after starting frompole position, leading from start to finish driving for theMercedes team.Nico Rosberg finished second in the other Mercedes withFernando Alonso third in aFerrari. Although contested over 56 laps, the race result was declared after 54 laps, as the chequered flag was shown one lap early through a marshalling error. The leading positions were not affected by this error.[2]
As a consequence of the race, Rosberg's lead in theDrivers' Championship was reduced to four points, with Alonso a further thirty-four behind. In theWorld Constructors Championship,Red Bull Racing passedForce India for second position, ninety-six points behind Mercedes.
Heading into the fourth round of the season,Mercedes driverNico Rosberg was leading theDrivers' Championship with 61 points; Rosberg's teammateLewis Hamilton was second on 50 points, 11 points behind Rosberg. Behind Rosberg and Hamilton in the Drivers' Championship,Nico Hülkenberg was third on 28 points, withFernando Alonso andJenson Button on 26 and 23 points respectively.[3] In theConstructors Championship, Mercedes were leading with 111 points andForce India were second on 44 points, withMcLaren third on 43 points.[4]
Prior to the race weekend,Stefano Domenicali resigned from position asFerrari team principal citing the team's poor start to the season and their longest winless streak for 18 years.[5] Domenicali was replaced by the President andCEO of Ferrari North AmericaMarco Mattiacci.[6]
Like the2013 Chinese Grand Prix, tyre supplierPirelli brought its white-banded medium compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre.[7]
Three practice sessions were held before the race; the first on Friday morning and the second on Friday afternoon. Both sessions lasted one and a half hours. The third session was held on Saturday morning and lasted an hour.[8]
The qualifying session held on Saturday afternoon was split into three parts. The first part ran for 18 minutes and eliminated the cars from qualifying that finished the session 16th or lower. The second part of qualifying lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions 11 to 16. The final part of qualifying determined the positions from first to tenth, and decidedpole position.
Qualifying took place under wet conditions, with all drivers using either intermediate or full wet tyres. Hamilton clinched his third pole position for the season, with a time of 1:53.860. As a result, Hamilton became the British driver with the highest number of pole positions, surpassingJim Clark's record of 33.[9] He was joined on the front row of the grid by Riccardo with Vettel qualifying third. Rosberg qualified fourth, 1.2 seconds behind Hamilton and Alonso qualified fifth. Massa, Bottas, Hulkenberg,Jean-Éric Vergne andRomain Grosjean rounded out the top ten. Räikkönen only managed 11th — missing out on the top ten for the second time in2014 having struggled with the balance and handling of his car during the session.[10] Jenson Button was the best placed McLaren in 12th, ahead ofDaniil Kvyat,Adrian Sutil, Button's teammateKevin Magnussen, withSergio Pérez qualifying 16th.Esteban Gutiérrez was 17th, with the rest of the field consisting of theCaterham andMarussia cars.Lotus driverPastor Maldonado did not take part in the qualifying sessions,[11] but was allowed to start the race.[12]
The race was raced over 56 laps, however the chequered flag was shown toLewis Hamilton at end of lap 55 by mistake. According to Article 43.2 of the FIA Sporting Regulations this meant that the race officially finished at the end of lap 54.[8] This meant thatKamui Kobayashi's overtake ofJules Bianchi on the final lap did not stand.[13]
As a consequence of the race, Hamilton reduced Rosberg's lead over him in the Drivers' Championship to four points. Alonso moved up to third position passing Hülkenberg with Vettel maintaining fifth place and Ricciardo moved from 10th to 6th.[14] In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes increased their lead, with Red Bull jumping ahead of Force India for second position and Ferrari moving to fourth, ahead of McLaren who fell from third to fifth position.[15]
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