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Formula One 2018: Chinese Grand Prix – live!


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What an unlikely victory for the Australian! Bottas takes second ahead of Raikkonen and Verstappen who will take a 10s penalty which will drop him back...

Hamilton takes fifth but will move up...can Sainz take Vettel into the hairpin? He can't! Vettel finishes in eighth.

"Holy ***," says Ricciardo on the radio. They got a bit of luck with the safety car but they made it work. Verstappen probably should have been right behind him, but for his collision with Vettel and subsequent penalty.


In colder conditions, Vettel pipped team-mate Kimi Raikkonen to pole position by just 0.08s to break the Finn's heart once again, while Hamilton could not get ahead of Valtteri Bottas and could only produce the fourth-fastest lap.

But the Brit gave notice of his own form on Friday with two timesheet-topping laps, only for it all to fall apart on Saturday.

Vettel arrived in China in the best possible form, having capitalised on a Mercedes software glitch to triumph in Australia before Hamilton's five-place grid penalty put paid to his chances of challenging the triumphant Ferrari in Bahrain.

Chinese Grand Prix LIVE

8.52am: Christian Horner rightly pays tribute to his race mechanics. They did a massive engine change on Saturday and then two double-stacked pit stops in the race.

Ricciardo stands on his car and just nods his head. Yes Daniel, what a drive.

New contract anyone?

DANIEL RICCIARDO WINS THE CHINESE GRAND PRIX

Bottas clings on to second, Raikkonen third and Vettel is down in eighth. Hamilton in fourth place. What a crazy race!

LAP 55

Bad to worse for Vettel, who gets overtaken by Alonso for seventh place.

Meanwhile, Verstappen is right up to the back of Kimi Raikkonen. Can they all cling on?

LAP 53

Four laps to go. Verstappen is closing on Raikkonen, who is closing on Bottas. The Finn's neck might be getting quite warm with so many breathing down it...

LAP 50

Bottas holds off Raikkonen for now but his countryman, whom he might replace at Ferrari next year, is closing fast. Would be a great drive from Bottas if he hangs onto second here.

LAP 48

Red Bull boss Christian Horner on Daniel Ricciardo: "He's done a mega job out there."

Heck yeah. Mega doesn't even cover it.

LAP 46

10-second time penalty for Max Verstappen. That will probably demote him to around eighth or ninth. Hurts, but it was his fault.

LAP 45

Ricciardo takes the lead! Stunning drive from the Australian who will now coast to the victory you would think, given he is faster than anyone else on the race track.

LAP 44

Oh my goodness. Verstappen dives down the inside of Vettel for third place and the two collide and both go around. Hamilton nips past both of them - although he has been overtaken by Raikkonen.

So much action! The stewards are investigating it but in the meantime, Vettel has been overtaken by Hulkenberg too and is down to seventh.

1st Bottas, 2nd Ricciardo, 3rd Raikkonen, 4th Hamilton, 5th Verstappen, 6th Hulkenberg, 7th Vettel.

LAP 42

Oh dear oh dear. Hamilton gets mugged by Verstappen too and up ahead of him, Ricciardo bombs past Vettel into second!

I reckon this is the Australian's to lose now! He's got so much extra grip.

LAP 41

WOW. Daniel Ricciardo comes from so far back at the hairpin and has overtaken Lewis Hamilton. Christian Horner gives it a massive roar on the pit wall - could Ricciardo win this race? He's only 1.7s off the front and is flying.

LAP 39

Oh dear. Verstappen so impetuous. The Dutchman tries to get round the outside in the middle sector, they touch and Verstappen goes wide. Ricciardo is the beneficiary and he is now up to fourth!

LAP 37

Ricciardo COASTS past Raikkonen at the hairpin. He takes fifth. The Red Bull of course has the freshest tyres of all!

LAP 35

The lapped runners are being allowed to go clear of the safety car so we're close to a restart. This has worked out quite well for Raikkonen by the way. He's fifth, on tyres that are seven laps fresher. Safety car in this lap. Bottas gets a good restart and retains the lead.

LAP 31 - SAFETY CAR

There is too much debris on the track from the Toro Rosso incident and Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo have taken advantage by pitting. Mercedes have not pitted - is that a mistake? Just might be...

LAP 30

Raikkonen has finally pitted and comes out sixth. He won't make much progress from there you'd think unless everyone else's tyres really go to pieces.

Alonso has also pitted and comes out in 13th which isn't good news.

The two Toro Rossos have just run into each other at the hairpin. Looks like Pierre Gasly's fault there, diving down the inside when the gap wasn't there. Hartley is now running 18th and Gasly 16th.

LAP 27

Valtteri Bottas takes the lead in Turns One and Two and Vettel follows him through passed Kimi Raikkonen. He's back to third and still hasn't stopped.

LAP 25

Fernando Alonso still hasn't stopped either so he is up to seventh. When he does stop he's going to be aiming for 10th place, battling Esteban Ocon and Kevin Magnussen. Three guys who know how to race there - could get tasty.

LAP 23

Kimi is lapping about 1.5s slower than his rivals but presumably because he is committing to the one-stop strategy. He will have fresher tyres at the end of the race now of course.

LAP 21

BOTTAS MAKES THE UNDERCUT WORK!

Vettel does indeed pit and comes out a full second behind Bottas. The Finn has the de facto lead of this race behind Raikkonen, who hasn't pitted yet.

Hamilton meanwhile has done the fastest lap of the race. Could he get ahead of Raikkonen when he pits eventually?

LAP 20

Verstappen is doing some mega sector times so Mercedes have pitted Bottas to cover him off. He comes out five seconds clear though.

Ferrari will now surely react with a pit stop.

LAP 19

Hamilton pits and gets out just ahead of Magnussen and Ricciardo, which is important so that he can run in clean air.

LAP 18

Verstappen pits from third onto the medium tyre. Is he going to try to go to the end? Maybe. Daniel Ricciardo does the exact same. That is all in from Red Bull.

LAP 16

Great scrap between Sainz Jr and Gasly, albeit for 15th place. Two of the grid's best young drivers going at it and the Frenchman is coming out on top - until the Spaniard gets DRS on the back straight and moves past. Good little battle though with fine defensive driving by Gasly.

LAP 14

Hamilton is lapping in the 1:39s while Bottas is into the 1:38s, which is slightly odd. Some suggestion it could be because Raikkonen isn't going flat out ahead of him and the dirty air is backing him up.

LAP 11

The first pit stop of the day is Brendon Hartley in his Toro Rosso, swapping the ultra-soft tyre for the medium. Pirelli reckon there are 35 laps of life in that white-rimmed tyre.

LAP 8

Pierre Gasly was the only man to start on the medium tyre after a very poor qualifying and while he is 18th, he seems to have it in the operating window which is interesting information for the others.

At the front meanwhile, Bottas has stopped the bleeding and is keeping Vettel within the undercut window.

Hamilton on team radio: "Sorry to lose the place, guys. Kimi was quite aggressive." Sounds pretty downbeat.


Lewis Hamilton faces an almighty battle to get his F1 title defence back on track as he starts the Chinese Grand Prix from fourth position after Ferrari sealed a front-row lockout in qualifying.

Sebastian Vettel was imperious as he sealed another pole position. He will be hoping to make it three wins from three in Shanghai after finishing first in both Australia and Bahrain.

It's sure to be a fantastic race and you can follow all the action with Sportsmail's MATT MALTBY from 7.10am BST.

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