The 2014 Chinese Grand Prix (formally the 2014 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix)[1] was a Formula One motor race that was held on 20 April 2014 at the Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China. The race was the fourth round of the 2014 Formula One season, and marked the eleventh time that the Chinese Grand Prix was held as a round for the Formula One World Championship.
| 2014 Chinese Grand Prix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 4 of 19 in the 2014 Formula One World Championship
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 Layout of the Shanghai International Circuit | |||||
| Race details | |||||
| Date | 20 April 2014 | ||||
| Official name | 2014 Formula 1 UBS Chinese 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 | |||||
Lewis Hamilton won the race comfortably after starting from pole position, leading from start to finish driving for the Mercedes team. Nico Rosberg finished second in the other Mercedes with Fernando Alonso third in a Ferrari. 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 the Drivers' Championship was reduced to four points, with Alonso a further thirty-four behind. In the World Constructors Championship, Red Bull Racing passed Force India for second position, ninety-six points behind Mercedes.
Report edit
Background edit
Heading into the fourth round of the season, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was leading the Drivers' Championship with 61 points; Rosberg's teammate Lewis 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, with Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button on 26 and 23 points respectively.[3] In the Constructors Championship, Mercedes were leading with 111 points and Force India were second on 44 points, with McLaren third on 43 points.[4]
Prior to the race weekend, Stefano Domenicali resigned from position as Ferrari 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 and CEO of Ferrari North America Marco Mattiacci.[6]
Like the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, tyre supplier Pirelli 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]
Practice and qualifying edit
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 decided pole 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, surpassing Jim 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 and Romain Grosjean rounded out the top ten. Räikkönen only managed 11th — missing out on the top ten for the second time in 2014 having struggled with the balance and handling of his car during the session.[10] Jenson Button was the best placed McLaren in 12th, ahead of Daniil Kvyat, Adrian Sutil, Button's teammate Kevin Magnussen, with Sergio Pérez qualifying 16th. Esteban Gutiérrez was 17th, with the rest of the field consisting of the Caterham and Marussia cars. Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado did not take part in the qualifying sessions,[11] but was allowed to start the race.[12]
Race edit
The race was raced over 56 laps, however the chequered flag was shown to Lewis 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 that Kamui Kobayashi's overtake of Jules Bianchi on the final lap did not stand.[13]
Post-race edit
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]
Classification edit
Qualifying edit
- Notes
- ^1 — Pastor Maldonado failed to set a lap time within 107% of the fastest lap time set by Lewis Hamilton in Q1. He was later given permission to start by race stewards.[12]
Race edit
Championship standings after the race edit
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- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References edit
- ^ a b "2014 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. Archived from the original on 14 March 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
- ^ Benson, Andrew (20 April 2014). "Lewis Hamilton eases to victory in China GP for Mercedes". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
- ^ "Standings — Drivers' World Championship". BBC Sport (BBC). Archived from the original on 17 April 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
- ^ "Standings — Constructors' World Championship". formula1.com (Formula One Administration). Archived from the original on 14 April 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
- ^ Johnson, Daniel (14 April 2014). "Stefano Domenicali quits as Ferrari team principal after poor start to new Formula One season". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- ^ Noble, Jonathan (14 April 2014). "Stefano Domenicali steps down as Ferrari F1 team boss". Autosport (Haymarket Consumer Media). Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- ^ "Pirelli reveal tyre choices for first four races". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 3 March 2014. Archived from the original on 7 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
- ^ a b "2014 Formula One Sporting Regulations" (PDF). FIA.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 28 February 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
- ^ "Factbox: Some of the records in Lewis Hamilton's sights". Reuters. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020 – via www.reuters.com.
- ^ "Qualifying analysis — Hamilton and Red Bull shine in Shanghai rain". formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 19 April 2014. Archived from the original on 21 April 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- ^ a b "2014 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
- ^ a b FIA Stewards Decision — Document No. 19 (PDF) (Report). Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. 19 April 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
- ^ Gill, Pete (20 April 2014). "Chinese GP race result rewound after chequered flag is waved prematurely!". Sky Sports. BSkyB. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
- ^ "Standings — Drivers' World Championship". BBC Sport (BBC). Archived from the original on 20 April 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
- ^ "Standings — Constructors' World Championship". formula1.com (Formula One Administration). Archived from the original on 21 April 2014.
- ^ "2014 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix Results". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 20 April 2014. Archived from the original on 20 April 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
- ^ a b "China 2014 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
External links edit
