Mercedes’ triple one-two underlines team pedigree

You would have to go back close to three decades to find a time when a Formula One team did the one-two in the first three races of the season.

1992 it was when Williams swept the top two spots of the first three races.

What was meant to be a circuit where Ferrari would correct their mistakes it made in Bahrain turned out to be a dominant outing for Mercedes in Shanghai, China, with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas doing everything necessary to build a healthy lead both in the drivers’ and constructors’ standings.

Bottas had managed to deny Hamilton pole by the slimmest of margins, just 0.023 seconds. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was third on the grid and his cool yet steely teammate Charles Leclerc was to start fourth.

Hamilton got the better start and going into Turn One, had already taken the lead from his teammate.

Leclerc stuck to the inside lane going into Turn One and he, too, got the better of his more experienced teammate. The best start, however, belonged to SportPesa Racing Point’s Sergio Perez whose brilliant overtaking saw him gain four positions from 12th in the first lap.

The Mexican’s decision to brave it out by sweeping the outside of Turn One paid handsome dividends whose benefits he maintained till the end of the race.

Sometimes it takes things going extremely bad to get the motivation to ‘seal all the cracks’ in execution and that is what Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon did on Sunday.

The Thai driver had a heavy crash on Saturday during the last practice session. Come race day and having started from the pit lane, he got into the stats by setting the fastest lap on the second lap.

After losing position to his teammate at the start, Vettel was yet again on the backfoot but was determined to prove his experience.

Although he was close to Leclerc, it did not seem like he had the extra power needed or deft drive to pass the Monegasque.

This left the team with a difficult situation on their hands. Eventually, on the 11th lap, Leclerc was told to “let Sebastian by”, the reasoning behind this being that Vettel was thought to be faster and was in a better position to hunt the disappearing Mercedes pair.

Leclerc obeyed. But Ferrari’s plan did not seem to pan out as hoped as Vettel clearly struggled to build space between himself and Leclerc. To make matters worse for the Ferraris, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was lurking. It’s when Verstappen came in for fresh tyres on the 17th lap that Ferrari firmed up its strategy, calling Vettel in in the subsequent lap.

It was almost too late as Verstappen caught Vettel soon after and attempted a ‘Ricciardo dive’ on the German but could not make it stick. On this occasion, Vettel was saved by a whisker.

Bottas came in to put on the hard compound on the 21st lap, his teammate doing the same a lap later in the company of Leclerc in the pit lane.

On the 34th lap, Verstappen made his second stop. To prevent the undercut, Vettel was called in shortly thereafter but this time around, there was a significant gap between the two.

To cover the possibility of having worn out tyres to compete with rivals on fresher tyres in the case of a Safety Car, Mercedes took the gamble of double-stacking Hamilton and Bottas in the pits.

It worked. Hamilton managed to rejoin without losing his position. Bottas came out behind Leclerc, who was on a lengthier middle stint but the flying Finn made light work of the Ferrari.

Vettel caught up with Leclerc and had the benefit of using DRS on his teammate, but it was too little too late as far as any prospects of catching Bottas were concerned.

In clean air for much of the race, Hamilton cruised to victory on the 1,000th Grand Prix for his 75th career win. SportPesa Racing Point’s Perez finished an impressive eighth, well within the points.

Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly did a late pit stop, which he could afford because no one was that close behind him, and as a result of the team’s craftiness, managed to set the fastest lap and snatch the extra point from Vettel who was on course to bag it.

Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon proved that he should be considered for graduation to the senior Red Bull team by managing to finish tenth despite starting from behind the grid, especially given the fact that after three races, Gasly, Verstappen’s teammate in the senior team, has three times less points than the Dutchman.

Heading to Baku, it’s Ferrari that is left with the headache of how to handle Leclerc without diminishing his potential, seeing that Vettel is struggling to prove himself a class above the precocious Monegasque.