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Lewis Hamilton achieved his fourth successive victory in Formula 1 after holding off a late challenge from Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Silver Arrows were in a class of their own, with more than a second per lap over their rivals.

Hamilton nailed the start from pole position and held a lead through the early stages.

Rosberg attempted an alternative strategy compared to Hamilton, by running three laps longer in the first stint and switching to Pirelli’s hard tyre rather than taking another set of the mediums on which they both started.

The race appeared to hinge on whether Rosberg could stay within a couple of seconds of Hamilton through his stint on the slower tyre, in order to jump him with an earlier final pit-stop.

But Hamilton stayed out of reach and was four seconds up when Mercedes decided to pit him for the final time on lap 43 of 66.

That gave him track position for the final stint, but the penalty of 23 laps on the slower tyre, while Rosberg faced the prospect of trying to catch and pass his team-mate on-track with his final set of the quicker tyres.

Rosberg was able to edge closer to the leader in the final laps, but fell short by just 0.6 seconds. This result means Hamilton is now the new championship leader. The first time since he won the Canadian Grand Prix of 2012.

Behind the dominant Mercedes cars, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo claimed his maiden podium finish in Formula 1 by taking third.

The Williams of Valtteri Bottas held that position initially, after an excellent start from fourth on the grid, but was jumped at the first round of pitstops and was powerless to prevent the Red Bull of reigning champion Sebastian Vettel jumping him for fourth at Turn 10 in the closing stages.

The four-time world champion drove a brilliant race from P15 on the grid to finish only one place behind his team-mate.

Red Bull pitted Vettel early to get him out of sequence with the rest, and the German made full use of an aggressive three-stop strategy to climb the order, producing some bolshy overtaking moves when required.

Home crowd favourite Fernando Alonso used a similar three-stop strategy to beat Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen to sixth position.

Raikkonen delivered his strongest performance of the season relative to his team-mate, but was powerless to prevent Alonso passing on fresher tyres in the late stages of the race, despite making it as difficult as he reasonably could.

Romain Grosjean delivered the first points of the season to the Lotus team by bringing the twin-tusk E22 home in eighth position.

The Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg claimed the final points on offer by jumping the slow McLaren of Jenson Button at the start and rounding out the top ten.

A three-stop strategy did work out for Felipe Massa, who started ninth but trailed home in P13 behind the McLaren pairing of Button and Kevin Magnussen.

So a fantastic result for Mercedes. Five out of five for the Brackley-based team, with Lewis Hamilton achieving his fourth race win in a row. Can the Silver Arrows be beaten? It’s going to be a challenge for the others to catch up.

Spanish Grand Prix race results, after 66 laps:

1.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes              1h41m05.155s
2.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes                   +0.636s
3.  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault          +49.014s
4.  Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull-Renault        +1m16.702s
5.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes       +1m19.293s
6.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari                 +1m27.743s
7.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari                     +1 lap
8.  Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault               +1 lap
9.  Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes        +1 lap
10.  Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes        +1 lap
11.  Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes            +1 lap
12.  Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes            +1 lap
13.  Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes           +1 lap
14.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault          +1 lap
15.  Pastor Maldonado   Lotus-Renault               +1 lap
16.  Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari              +1 lap
17.  Adrian Sutil       Sauber-Ferrari              +1 lap
18.  Jules Bianchi      Marussia-Ferrari           +2 laps
19.  Max Chilton        Marussia-Ferrari           +2 laps
20.  Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault           +2 laps

Retirements:

Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault           34 laps
Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso-Renault         24 laps

Drivers’ championship:

1.  Lewis Hamilton    10
2.  Nico Rosberg      97
3.  Fernando Alonso   49
4.  Sebastian Vettel  45
5.  Daniel Ricciardo  39
6.  Nico Hulkenberg   37
7.  Valtteri Bottas   34
8.  Jenson Button     23
9.  Kevin Magnussen   20
10.  Sergio Perez      20
11.  Kimi Raikkonen    17
12.  Felipe Massa      12
13.  Romain Grosjean   4
14.  Jean-Eric Vergne  4
15.  Daniil Kvyat      4

Constructors’ championship:

1.  Mercedes              197
2.  Red Bull-Renault      84
3.  Ferrari               66
4.  Force India-Mercedes  57
5.  Williams-Mercedes     46
6.  McLaren-Mercedes      43
7.  Toro Rosso-Renault    8
8.  Lotus-Renault         4
9.  Sauber-Ferrari        0
10.  Marussia-Ferrari      0
11.  Caterham-Renault      0

Next race: Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo. May 22-25.

The battle between the Mercedes drivers heats up with Lewis Hamilton claiming his 35th career pole position in Formula 1 at the Circuit de Catalunya.

The 2008 world champion denied his team-mate Nico Rosberg in the top ten shootout despite the fact Rosberg was quickest in both Q1 and Q2.

And yet Hamilton delivered when it mattered in Q3 to grab the top spot by 0.168 seconds in a tense final-lap duel.

With Mercedes continuing to dominate, the rest were fighting for third and it was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who emerged as best of the rest, even though it was a second off from Hamilton.

Valtteri Bottas qualified fourth for Williams, comfortably ahead of Romain Grosjean, who continued the recent upward trend for Lotus E22 with fifth position.

The Ferraris lapped at a similar pace, ending up sixth and seventh with Kimi Raikkonen shading team-mate and crowd favourite Fernando Alonso.

McLaren’s Jenson Button qualified in eighth ahead of Felipe Massa. The latter looking set for a stronger grid position but for a disappointing Q3 lap in the Williams.

Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel will start in tenth after being unable to complete a lap during Q3. His Red Bull RB10 grind to a halt before his run, prompting a red flag.

Nico Hulkenberg was fastest of the drivers to fail to make the top ten shootout. The Force India driver was bumped out of the Q3 slots by Bottas late on, despite being less than a tenth slower than home hero Alonso, who just scraped through.

Sergio Perez qualified in P12 ahead of Daniil Kvyat and Esteban Gutierrez, while Kevin Magnussen is classified as P15 despite not running in Q2 following an engine problem striking his McLaren.

Jean-Eric Vergne was P16 despite not running on track and will drop a further ten places on the grid for shedding a wheel during Friday afternoon practice session.

Adrian Sutil, who complained about a problem with his Sauber over the team radio, was the fastest of those who failed to escape Q1.

He was bumped down to P17 in the last few seconds of the first segment of qualifying by Button, who put on the quicker medium Pirelli in order to ensure he was not knocked out.

Max Chilton was P18, outqualifying his Marussia team-mate Jules Bianchi by six tenths of a second, with Marcus Ericsson doing a good job in the lead Caterham to end up just ahead of Kamui Kobayashi.

As for Pastor Maldonado, the Lotus driver will start last after crashing even before starting his flying lap.

So a great comeback from Lewis Hamilton after being outpaced by Nico Rosberg in the first two segments of qualifying. It’s going to be fascinating contest to see which Mercedes driver will have the advantage in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Qualifying positions, Circuit de Catalunya:

1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m25.232s
2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m25.400s
3. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m26.285s
4. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m26.632s
5. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m26.960s
6. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m27.104s
7. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m27.140s
8. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m27.335s
9. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m27.402s
10. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m27.685s
11. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m28.002s
12. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1m28.039s
13. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m28.280s
14. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes No time
15. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault No time*
16. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1m28.563s
17. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1m29.586s
18. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1m30.177s
19. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1m30.312s
20. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1m30.375s
21. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault No time
22. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault No time**

107 per cent time: 1m32.837s

*Five-pace penalty for gearbox change
**Ten-place penalty for unsafe release

Lewis Hamilton achieved his hat trick of victories this season with a dominant victory at the Chinese Grand Prix.

This result equals Niki Lauda’s record of 25 wins in Formula 1 and Hamilton is slowly closing the gap to championship leader Nico Rosberg to four points.

Hamilton dominated the race from pole position, while Mercedes team-mate Rosberg had to battle through to second after a slow start.

Australian Grand Prix winner Rosberg started fourth behind the Red Bulls, but drop down to seventh after a sluggish getaway and was fortunate to emerge from the first corner unscathed after tagging the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

Mercedes lost the telemetry readings from Rosberg’s car before the start of the Chinese Grand Prix, but the team was able to help manage his race without them.

Rosberg repassed Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India and Felipe Massa’s Williams early on, before jumping the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo for fourth at the first round of pitstops.

Once it became clear Rosberg did not have to worry about fuel consumption in his second stint, he closed down and passed the reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull for third.

Vettel slipped back on his second set of tyres and fell into the clutches of team-mate Ricciardo, also recovering after a slow start from the front row of the grid.

Vettel refused a team order to let Ricciardo through, but the Australian got the best of their personal duel anyway when the four-time world champion Vettel ran deep into Turn 1 around half race distance.

The pair eventually finished fourth and fifth behind Fernando Alonso, who survived contact with his former Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa at the start to score the Scuderia’s first podium of the 2014 season.

Alonso climbed to third with a fast start from fifth on the grid and jumped Vettel for second by making his first pitstop earlier than the Red Bull.

But the improved Ferrari was not fast enough to prevent Mercedes scoring its third consecutive one-two result, so Alonso had to settle for the final podium spot when Rosberg passing him easily on the back straight with 14 laps to the flag.

Alonso had to do a long stint on his final set of tyres and only held off Ricciardo’s Red Bull by 1.2 seconds, while Vettel finished 24 seconds behind his team-mate.

Massa survived his brush off Alonso as he tried to squeeze between the Ferrari and Ricciardo’s sluggish Red Bull at the start to run as high as fifth, but the Brazilian’s race was ruined by a slow first pitstop at which Williams encountered a problem with the left-rear wheel.

Nico Hulkenberg got the better of Massa’s Williams team-mate Bottas to round out the top six, while Hulkenberg’s Force India team-mate Sergio Perez – a podium hero last time out in Bahrain – climbed from P16 on the grid to finish ninth, just 2.4 seconds behind Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari.

Romain Grosjean’s Lotus retired with gearbox problems – no fourth gear – allowing Toro Rosso rookie Daniil Kvyat to continue his strong start to the season and claim the final point by rounding out the top ten in China.

Jenson Button completed a disappointing race for McLaren by finishing in P11, ahead of the slow-starting Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne and his rookie team-mate Kevin Magnussen.

Pastor Maldonado climbed from the back of the grid to P14 for Lotus, one position ahead of the recovering Massa.

So a not a thrilling race at the Shanghai International Circuit compared to Bahrain but the race results means it’s an exciting battle for top honours. Nico Rosberg still leads the Drivers’ championship with 79 over 74 to Lewis Hamilton. While Red Bull Racing moves to second in the Constructors’ as Mercedes extends their lead.

Chinese Grand Prix, race results after 54 laps:

1.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes              1h36m52.810s
2.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes                  +18.686s
3.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari                   +25.765s
4.  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault          +26.978s
5.  Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull-Renault          +51.012s
6.  Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes      +57.581s
7.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes         +58.145s
8.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari                 +1m23.990s
9.  Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes    +1m26.489s
10.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault          +1 lap
11.  Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes            +1 lap
12.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso-Renault          +1 lap
13.  Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes            +1 lap
14.  Pastor Maldonado   Lotus-Renault               +1 lap
15.  Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes           +1 lap
16.  Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari              +1 lap
17.  Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault            +1 lap
18.  Jules Bianchi      Marussia-Ferrari            +1 lap
19.  Max Chilton        Marussia-Ferrari           +2 laps
20.  Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault           +2 laps

Retirements:

Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault              27 laps
Adrian Sutil       Sauber-Ferrari              4 laps

Drivers’ standings:

1.  Nico Rosberg      79
2.  Lewis Hamilton    75
3.  Fernando Alonso   41
4.  Nico Hulkenberg   36
5.  Sebastian Vettel  33
6.  Daniel Ricciardo  24
7.  Valtteri Bottas   24
8.  Jenson Button     23
9.  Kevin Magnussen   20
10.  Sergio Perez      18
11.  Felipe Massa      12
12.  Kimi Raikkonen    11
13.  Jean-Eric Vergne  4
14.  Daniil Kvyat      4

Constructors’ standings:

1.  Mercedes              154
2.  Red Bull-Renault      57
3.  Force India-Mercedes  54
4.  Ferrari               52
5.  McLaren-Mercedes      43
6.  Williams-Mercedes     36
7.  Toro Rosso-Renault    8

Next race: Spanish Grand Prix, Circuit de Catalunya. May 9-11.

Lewis Hamilton achieved his third successive pole position by setting the quickest time at the Chinese Grand Prix.

In additional to taking the number one spot in China, the Mercedes driver recored his 34th career pole position in Formula 1.

Holding off the Red Bulls must be a bonus to the 2008 world champion.

With qualifying held in wet conditions, initially with most running on wets before the intermediates became the tyre of choice.

Hamilton went fastest on his first run in Q3 then improved by almost half a second on his second run to consolidate his place.

With this pole position in China, Hamilton has now broken Jim Clark’s British record, with only Michael Schumacher (68), Ayrton Senna (65) and Sebastian Vettel (45) still ahead of him overall.

Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo will start second, setting a time six tenths slower than Hamilton on his final Q3 attempt.

This means the Australian has outqualified his team-mate Sebastian Vettel for the third time this season, with the defending world champion only in third place ahead of the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg.

Rosberg had looked set to take provisional pole away from Hamilton on his second Q3 run, but he carried too much speed into the hairpin, running wide and preventing him from improving.

A spin at the final corner on his final attempt ensured that Rosberg could do no better than fourth.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was fifth quickest having never threatened the top positions during qualifying, with the Williams pairing of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas closely matched in sixth and seventh respectively.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg qualified eighth, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne.

While Romain Grosjean put a Lotus into Q3 for the first time this season, despite ending up the slowest in the top ten shootout.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren driver Jenson Button were the big-name casualties during Q2.

Both were unable to set a good enough pace on their second set of intermediates to break into the top ten after being bumped out of it by well-timed improvements by Vergne, Massa and Hulkenberg.

Button, who complained of a lack of front tyre temperature, and Raikkonen both lapped quickly enough in the first two sectors to make Q3 on their final laps, but worsening conditions in the final sector made it impossible to improve overall.

Daniil Kvyat will start in P13 ahead of Adrian Sutil, Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez.

Esteban Gutierrez was the fastest of those to fall in Q1.

The Sauber driver had looked set to seal a place in the second stage of qualifying with a late run on intermediates before a very poor final sector, including a wide moment at the final corner, ruined his attempt.

Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi beat Jules Bianchi to P18, with team-mate Marcus Ericsson outpacing the Marussia of Max Chilton.

Pastor Maldonado was classified P22 as he was unable to participate thanks to an engine problem that forced him to stop on track during FP3.

So a brilliant qualifying record for Mercedes. Four pole from four races with Lewis Hamilton setting a new British record with poles.

Can the Silver Arrows continue that impressive run into the race? It should be a fascinating Chinese Grand Prix.

Qualifying positions at the Chinese Grand Prix:

1.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes              1m53.860s
2.  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault      1m54.455s
3.  Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull-Renault      1m54.960s
4.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes              1m55.143s
5.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari               1m55.637s
6.  Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes     1m56.147s
7.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes     1m56.282s
8.  Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes  1m56.366s
9.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso-Renault    1m56.773s
10.  Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault         1m57.079s
11.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari               1m56.860s
12.  Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes      1m56.963s
13.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault    1m57.289s
14.  Adrian Sutil       Sauber-Ferrari        1m57.393s
15.  Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes      1m57.675s
16.  Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes  1m58.264s
17.  Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari        1m58.988s
18.  Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault      1m59.260s
19.  Jules Bianchi      Marussia-Ferrari      1m59.326s
20.  Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault      2m00.646s
21.  Max Chilton        Marussia-Ferrari      2m00.865s
22.  Pastor Maldonado   Lotus-Renault

107 per cent time: 2m03.602s

Lewis Hamilton won the intra-team battle against Nico Rosberg to score his second victory of the season for Mercedes.

The 900th Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit proved to be a thrilling race from start-to-finish with fantastic wheel-to-wheel battle.

A late-race Safety Car, deployed after Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus tipping Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber into a roll at Turn 1, turned the 57-lap race into a ten lap sprint under floodlights in the desert.

Both drivers had gone wheel-to-wheel in the early stages, as Hamilton edging out polesitter Rosberg at the start and the German attempted to come back at his British team-mate, so they were warned to keep it clean by Mercedes boss Paddy Lowe.

They just about managed it as they scrapped aggressively for the overfall victory.

Rosberg had the advantage of softer tyres for the showdown and had several stabs at passing Hamilton using DRS into the Michael Schumacher corner.

But he could not make either stick, and Hamilton prevailed on his medium tyres after some epic side-by-side racing through the esses.

Behind, Force India recorded its first podium since the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix as Sergio Perez just held off the quicker Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.

The Red Bulls also had the advantage on running the soft tyres for the final sprint and Ricciardo got the better of his world champion team-mate Sebastian Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India to finish in fourth place.

Vettel, who complained of a lack of power from his Renault engine, could not find his own way past Hulkenberg so had to spend the final two laps fending off Williams pair Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas for sixth.

Williams gambled on a three-stop strategy where most of the other frontrunners went for two, and the Safety Car undid its hopes of a better result.

The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top ten, while Jenson Button joined his McLaren team-mate Kevin Magnussen with a non-finish. This was a disappointing result for the Jenson’s 250th Grand Prix appearance.

So a brilliant race in the desert. Full of action and drama throughout the field, and yet the Silver Arrows comes out on top once again with three victories out of three races.

Bahrain Grand Prix race results after 57 laps:

1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes                  1h38m42.743
2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                  +1.085s
3. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes      +24.067s
4. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault          +24.489s
5. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes      +28.654s
6. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault          +29.879s
7. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes         +31.265s
8. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes         +31.876s
9. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                   +32.595s
10. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari                   +33.462s
11. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault        +41.342s
12. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault             +43.143s
13. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari          +59.909s
14. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault             +1m02.803s
15. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault          +1m27.900s
16. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari          +1 lap
17. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes          +2 laps

Retirements

Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes        40 laps
Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari          39 laps
Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault        33 laps
Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault      18 laps
Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari          17 laps

Drivers’ standings:

1. Nico Rosberg       61
2. Lewis Hamilton     50
3. Nico Hulkenberg    28
4. Fernando Alonso    26
5. Jenson Button      23
6. Sebastian Vettel   23
7. Kevin Magnussen    20
8. Valtteri Bottas    18
9. Sergio Perez       16
10. Daniel Ricciardo   12
11. Felipe Massa       12
12. Kimi Raikkonen     7
13. Jean-Eric Vergne   4
14. Daniil Kvyat       3

Constructors’ standings:

1. Mercedes               111
2. Force India-Mercedes   44
3. McLaren-Mercedes       43
4. Red Bull-Renault       35
5. Ferrari                33
6. Williams-Mercedes      30
7. Toro Rosso-Renault     7

Next race: Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai. April 18-20.

Nico Rosberg achieved his fifth career pole position in Formula 1 by edging out Lewis Hamilton at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Throughout the weekend, Lewis Hamilton had set the pace in every session leading into qualifying. In fact, the Mercedes driver was the favourite for pole position, but after being outpaced by Rosberg on their first runs in Q3, he tried to make amends but ran wide on his final run.

Rosberg also aborted his final run too after been informed  Hamilton made a mistake, earning the top spot and another on-two for the Silver Arrows.

Daniel Ricciardo was one of the few drivers to improve on his second run in Q3, jumping to third. However, the Red Bull driver will serve a ten-place grid penalty after an unsafe release in last weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

This relegated Valtteri Bottas to third, the Finn proving that the Williams team’s pace during pre-season testing here was no fluke with a place on the second row.

Force India driver Sergio Perez has been strong all weekend and was next quickest, only a tenth slower than Bottas.

He shaded Kimi Raikkonen, who had only one run in Q3 because The Iceman had only one set of fresh Pirellis remaining, by 22 thousandths of a second.

The McLaren duo of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen ended up seventh and eighth, split by the Williams of Felipe Massa, with both making late improvements as they also had only one set of new softs for the session.

As for Fernando Alonso, the Ferrari driver was the slowest in Q3 after a disappointing final lap, ending up six tenths adrift from team-mate Raikkonen.

And yet the biggest shock was when the previous Bahrain Grand Prix winner was knocked out in Q2. The defending world champion Sebastian Vettel was unable to make into the top ten shoot out for the second time in three races.

Red Bull Racing opted to complete just one run in Q2 and Vettel complained about downshift problems after missing the cut by six-hundredths of a second.

Nico Hulkenberg, who has struggled to match Force India team-mate Perez all weekend, also failed to hook up a good enough lap to make Q3 after running wide onto the kerb at Turn 11, ending up P12 ahead of the Toro Rossos of Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez shaded Lotus driver Romain Grosjean for P15 place by just 17 thousandths of a second.

This was another disappointing qualifying session for Lotus. With Pastor Maldonado dropping out in Q1 with P17, beaten by his team-mate by nine thousandths of a second.

Grosjean is under investigation from the race stewards after impeding Adrian Sutil’s Sauber during qualifying.

Sutil was also knocked out in Q1, while Caterham continued its recent upward curve in terms of performance, with Kamui Kobayashi P19, lapping within a quarter of a second, and Marcus Ericsson in P21.

Jules Bianchi split the two Caterhams, with Max Chilton taking his usual grid spot, in last place.

Qualifying positions, Bahrain Grand Prix:

1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m33.185s
2. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes             1m33.464s
3. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes    1m34.247s
4. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes 1m34.346s
5. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari              1m34.368s
6. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m34.387s
7. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes    1m34.511s
8. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes     1m34.712s
9. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m34.992s
10. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m34.985s
11. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m35.116s
12. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault   1m35.145s
13. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault     1m34.051s*
14. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault   1m35.286s
15. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari       1m35.891s
16. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m35.908s
17. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault        1m36.663s
18. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari       1m36.840s
19. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault     1m37.085s
20. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari     1m37.310s
21. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault     1m37.875s
22. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari     1m37.913s

*Ten-place grid penalty for unsafe release in the pits

Lewis Hamilton kicked off his new Formula 1 season in style by dominating the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver made up for his disappointing early retirement from the season-opener in Australia by beating his team-mate Nico Rosberg to victory by 17 seconds at Sepang.

Albert Park winner Rosberg maintained his position as championship leader by finishing second.

He jumped reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel off the line and successfully repelled both Red Bulls after a massive tank-slapper coming through Turn 3 on the first lap.

He reported struggling with his rear tyres in the early stages and could not keep pace with Hamilton, who stretched out an early and decisive lead before racing on to record the 23rd Grand Prix win of his career.

Rosberg finished a comfortable 7.2 seconds clear of third-placed Vettel, who put his first championship points on the board after his own early retirement in Australia.

The Red Bulls were side-by-side through the opening sequence of turns, as Vettel’s team-mate Daniel Ricciardo went round the outside at Turn 2.

Rosberg’s massive twitch coming though the long sweeping right-hander at Turn 3 allowed the reigning world champion to come back at his team-mate briefly, but Ricciardo held firm, only to be passed on lap four when Vettel slid up the inside at Turn 1 unchallenged.

Ricciardo had to get his elbows out again after the first round of pitstops, successfully brushing off the efforts from Fernando Alonso to pass as he rejoined. The Red Bull winning the battle over the Ferrari after more side-by-side action through Turns 1, 2 and 3.

But this proved a moot point ultimately, as Ricciardo suffered a botched late pit-stop that required mechanics to push his car back to the Red Bull pit to refit the front-left wheel correctly.

Daniel rejoined the race, but then suffered a front wing failure on the start-finish straight, having broken it by running wide out of Turn 14 coming onto the back straight. He retired with a few laps to the flag.

And to rub more salt to his injuries, the race stewards have applied a ten-place grid penalty to Ricciardo in the next race at Bahrain, for unsafe release in the pit-stop. Terrible back luck for the Red Bull driver.

Ricciardo’s misfortune promoted a personal duel between Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg, in which the Spaniard again prevailed to take fourth position.

Hulkenberg’s Force India used an unconventional two-stop strategy to get ahead of the Ferrari, but ultimately Alonso used the advantage of fresher Pirelli to get ahead in the final moments of the race.

Jenson Button completed a stealthy climb from tenth on the grid to complete the top six, ahead of the duelling Williams of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. The Brazilian finished in front of the Finn after ignoring orders from his team to let him through.

Button’s McLaren team-mate Kevin Magnussen recovered from an early five-second stop-go penalty for puncturing the right-rear tyre on Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari to finish ninth, while Formula 1’s youngest ever points scorer Daniil Kvyat scored again by rounding out the top ten for Toro Rosso.

Raikkonen recovered to a pointless P12, behind Romain Grosjean’s much-improved Lotus.

So a brilliant result for Mercedes. The first one-two for the manufacturer since the Italian Grand Prix back in 1955. Nico Rosberg still leads the drivers’ championship with the Brackley-based team now in first position in the constructors’ standings.

Malaysian Grand Prix race results, 56 laps:

1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes               1h40m25.974s
2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                +17.313s
3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        +24.534s
4. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 +35.992s
5. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes    +47.199s
6. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        +1m23.691s
7. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes       +1m25.076s
8. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes       +1m25.537s
9. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes        +1 lap
10. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault     +1 lap
11. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          +1 lap
12. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari                +1 lap
13. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault       +1 lap
14. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault       +2 laps
15. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari       +2 laps

Retirements:

Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault        49 laps
Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari          35 laps
Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari          32 laps
Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault      18 laps
Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari        8 laps
Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault           7 laps
Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes    0 laps (Non-start)

Drivers’ championship:

1. Nico Rosberg       43
2. Lewis Hamilton     25
3. Fernando Alonso    24
4. Jenson Button      23
5. Kevin Magnussen    20
6. Nico Hulkenberg    18
7. Sebastian Vettel   15
8. Valtteri Bottas    14
9. Kimi Raikkonen     6
10. Felipe Massa       6
11. Jean-Eric Vergne   4
12. Daniil Kvyat       3
13. Sergio Perez       1

Constructors’ championship:

1. Mercedes                 68
2. McLaren-Mercedes         43
3. Ferrari                  30
4. Williams-Mercedes        20
5. Force India-Mercedes     19
6. Red Bull-Renault         15
7. Toro Rosso-Renault       7
8. Sauber-Ferrari           0
9. Lotus-Renault            0
10. Caterham-Renault         0
11. Marussia-Ferrari         0

Next race: Bahrain Grand Prix, Bahrain International Circuit. April 4-6.

Lewis Hamilton achieved his second successive pole position in the new era of Formula 1 at Sepang, following a rain-delayed qualifying session.

The heavy rain caused a 50-minute delay to the action. Once Q1 was underway, the call on using the right wet weather tyres was crucial in getting track position and speed.

Hamilton’s first flying lap of one minute, 59.431 seconds was respectable enough to secure pole position.

By securing pole, Lewis Hamilton has now equalled Jim Clark’s record of 33 pole positions in Formula 1. An impressive achievement.

His margin over the four-time world champion was small though, just 55 thousandths of a second faster than Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.

Nico Rosberg showed disappointing pace on his first flying lap, ending up only fourth fastest, but with track conditions a little worse in the closing stages, he did enough to improve to third.

Fernando Alonso was the driver he bumped down to fourth, although the Spaniard was fortunate to make Q3 after surviving a collision with Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat at Turn 9 during Q2.

The Spaniard suffered front-left suspension damage in the clash, which happened when he was struggling back to the pits on the intermediate tyre while most were on full wets.

The Russian had closed rapidly on Alonso and dived to the inside of the slow left-hander, but Alonso turned in and Kvyat slid into him.

That race incident will be investigated by stewards after the session.

Daniel Ricciardo was fifth fastest ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who was the only driver other than Hamilton to head the times during Q3, with Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg seventh.

Behind him was Kevin Magnussen, who started Q3 on intermediates but pitted to change to wets, salvaging eighth position while team-mate Jenson Button stuck with the inferior tyre and ended up slowest in tenth.

Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne was the other driver to reach the top ten shootout, ending up ninth.

Williams pairing Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were the big-name casualties during Q2.

With everyone setting their times using wet Pirellis during the middle segment of the session, the Williams FW36 again struggled for traction in the low-grip conditions. And the pair ended up P13 and P14 respectively.

Vergne prevailed in a tense battle for the final Q3 slot, bumping his Toro Rosso team-mate Kvyat from the position in the final seconds of the session.

Sauber driver Esteban Gutierrez ended up P12 ahead of the Williams duo, with Lotus driver Romain Grosjean suffering a late spin and unable to do better than P16 after making Q2 for the first time this year.

Pastor Maldonado was unable to join his Lotus team-mate in the second phase of qualifying, ending up the fastest of those to miss the Q2 cut 0.385 seconds slower than Vergne.

After the delayed start, every team apart from McLaren opted to send their drivers out on intermediate rubber in wet conditions, with the majority of the order dictated by pace during the first half of the session.

Sauber’s Adrian Sutil, Marussia pairing Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton and the Caterhams of Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson were the others to fall in Q1.

The session was brought to a premature close when Ericsson lost it on a wet kerb at the exit of Turn 3 after what the Swede described as a “silly mistake” and spun into the barrier, rebounding and coming to rest on the track.

Qualifying positions, Malaysian Grand Prix:

1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m59.431s
2. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m59.486s
3. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              2m00.050s
4. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               2m00.175s
5. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault      2m00.541s
6. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari               2m01.218s
7. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  2m01.712s
8. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes      2m02.213s
9. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault    2m03.078s
10. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      2m04.053s
11. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault    2m02.351s
12. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        2m02.369s
13. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes     2m02.460s
14. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes  2m02.511s
15. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         2m02.885s
16. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault         2m02.074s
17. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari        2m02.131s
18. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes     2m02.756s*
19. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari      2m02.702s
20. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault      2m03.595s
21. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari      2m04.388s
22. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault      2m04.407s

107 per cent time: 2m05.385s

*Five-place grid penalty for impending Kimi Raikkonen

Nico Rosberg kicked off the new era of Formula 1 with victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

The Mercedes team delivered on their pre-season promise by dominating the race in Albert Park, Melbourne.

Rosberg took the lead at the start and was never headed on his way to his fourth career victory, which he took by a comfortable twenty-four seconds.

The German made a superb start from third on the grid, passing Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull and his team-mate Lewis Hamilton to take the number one spot.

Rosberg made the most of the W05’s speed advantage to streak away from the field at will. Even with the safety car called out following Valtteri Bottas’ brush against the wall and shedding the right-rear tyre, didn’t affected the Mercedes driver’s race.

Rosberg’s team-mate Hamilton slipped back to fourth on the first lap as he struggled with an engine problem in his Mercedes.

After initial confusion as to whether he should carry on, the 2008 world champion retired his W05 into the pits as early as the third lap of 57.

Australian home hero Ricciardo completed a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for Red Bull Racing by narrowly beating McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen to finish second.

The world champion team looked to be in desperate trouble in pre-season testing, but made enormous steps with its Renault-engined car in Australia, allowing Ricciardo to score an unlikely maiden podium in his first race for the Milton Keynes-based outfit.

And yet hours after the Australian Grand Prix, the race stewards discovered that his Red Bull was found to have “exceeded consistently” the limit on peak fuel consumption of 100kg per hour, a new rule introduced for the 2014 season.

The end result means a disqualification for Daniel Ricciardo. Such a big shame after a brilliant drive in his home Grand Prix.

As for Sebastian Vettel, the defending world champion had a really short race affected by reliability problem in his RB10.

He started out of sequence on the medium tyre after a disappointing result in qualifying consigned him to a row six start.

His struggles with a lack of power from his Renault engine continued into the race and he joined Hamilton in retirement after only five laps.

McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen finished on the podium on his Formula 1 debut, after surviving a wild oversteer moment shortly after the start.

The reigning Formula Renault 3.5 champion beat team-mate Jenson Button to second spot by 3.2 seconds.

The 2009 world champion started down on row five after his final flying lap in Q2 was spoiled by yellow flags, but he used smart strategy to jump from the fringes of the top ten to sixth as the safety car came out, then overhaul Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari and Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India at the second round of stops.

Williams driver Bottas overcame Jean-Eric Vergne’s wildly oversteering Toro Rosso and Hulkenberg in the closing stages to finish sixth, but will rue what might have been after a messy race.

The Finn starred in the early stages as he worked the Williams through to the top six from P15 on the grid, but the Finn touched the wall coming out of Turn 10 on lap 11 and broke his right-rear wheel.

He avoided suspension damage and pitted for a replacement, before working his way back through the field. A decent points finish was at least some reward for Williams after Felipe Massa was wiped out by Kamui Kobayashi’s locked-up Caterham at the first corner on the first lap.

Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari beat the Toro Rossos of Vergne and Formula 1 rookie Daniil Kvyat as these three completed the top ten.

At 19 years and 322 days, Kvyat becomes the youngest driver ever to score a championship point.

Perez’s Force India, both Saubers, and both Marussias also made the flag as 15 cars in total made the finish.

Jules Bianchi finished eight laps down and unclassified after failing to make it off the grid, causing an aborted start and forcing him to start from the pitlane behind the Lotus of Romain Grosjean.

Grosjean made it to lap 45 before retiring his troublesome twin-tusk E22, while team-mate Pastor Maldonado and Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson also stopped out on-track shortly after half-distance.

So a fascinating race featuring the new rules for this season. Mercedes proved their impressive pre-season testing form with victory but reliability remains an issue.

Australian Grand Prix, race results after 57 laps:

1.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes              1h32m58.710s
2.  Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes          +26.777s
3.  Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes          +30.027s
4.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari                   +35.284s
5.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes         +47.639s
6.  Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes      +50.718s
7.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari                   +57.675s
8.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso-Renault      +1m00.441s
9.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault      +1m03.585s
10.  Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes    +1m25.916s
11.  Adrian Sutil       Sauber-Ferrari              +1 lap
12.  Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari              +1 lap
13.  Max Chilton        Marussia-Ferrari           +2 laps
14.  Jules Bianchi      Marussia-Ferrari           +8 laps*

DSQ  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault          +24.525s**

*Not classified
**Disqualified over fuel flow

Retirements:

Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault              43 laps
Pastor Maldonado   Lotus-Renault              29 laps
Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault           27 laps
Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull-Renault            3 laps
Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes                    2 laps
Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault            0 laps
Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes           0 laps

Drivers’ championship:

1.  Nico Rosberg      25
2.  Kevin Magnussen   18
3.  Jenson Button     15
4.  Fernando Alonso   12
5.  Valtteri Bottas   10
6.  Nico Hulkenberg   8
7.  Kimi Raikkonen    6
8.  Jean-Eric Vergne  4
9.  Daniil Kvyat      2
10. Sergio Perez 1

Constructors’ championship:

1.  McLaren/Mercedes      33
2.  Mercedes              25
3.  Ferrari               18
4.  Williams/Mercedes     10
5.  Force India/Mercedes  9
6.  Toro Rosso/Renault    6

Next race: Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang. March 28-30.