Nico Rosberg wrapped up an easy win at the Chinese Grand Prix but he was made to sweat for al but three laps after making a poor start allowing second place qualifier, Daniel Ricciardo, to leap into the lead. The Red Bull driver’s lead was short lived as Rosberg superior machine usurped Ricciardo’s red Bull Renault. Just at the moment Rosberg made his move the Red Bull suffered a left rear tyre failure which unwrapped itself from the hub of the wheel and flew into the air, landing into the grass run-off area at the side of the track. From that moment Rosberg never looked back and was never again challenged for the lead. Before the start of the race Rosberg claimed that the Ferraris were forming the greatest threat and that a challenge to decide the race winner was imminent. The challenge never materialised. While Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel qualified 3rd and 4th respectively the race is were the points are lost and gained. And at the start both Ferrari’s very nearly lost out with the sister Red Bull driven by Daniel Kvyat at the heart of the first lap-first corner story. Kvyat, starting from sixth made a good start and hurtled into the first corner trying to make up as many places as his ambition would allow. He was a little too ambitious at turn 2 but as both Ferraris ahead of him made poor starts he sensed an opportunity. The Sebastian Vettel saw Kvyat going for position sensed a collision and took instinctive avoiding action which cased him to collide into his team mate Raikkonen. Raikkonen was immediately wounded, lost his front wing and was forced him to pit. Vettel’s reward was to drop down the order to eighth. So where was Hamilton? At the back of the field a result of suffering numerous penalties during the weekend had left Hamilton starting last and from the pits. Hamilton knew he had his work cut out for the race but was looking forward to making up places and a possible podium finish such is the prodigious pace on offer in his Mercedes. But Hamilton’s weekend got worse still after he lost his front wing on the opening lap. There was a temporary reprieve when  the safety car was deployed on lap 4 which meant Hamilton could make up ground. But Mercedes decided to call him into the pits for another set of tyres which in theory would give Hamilton more options later in the race.   The options never benefited Hamilton and in total he made five pit stops during the race in order to make up lost ground. At one point during the 57 lap race he was third, but the number of pit stops made and combined with a damaged car meant that Hamilton was limping around in nothing more than a lemon. While Rosberg was easing to victory he was actually missing an action packed race behind him. Ricciardo battled back to finish a strong fourth while his team mate Kvyat finished third. And Vettel had enough pace and temperament to finish a strong if distant second. Raikkonen while losing out at the start through no fault of his own returned a healthy 5th place. Both of the Williams looked promising early on but faded during the race. Still 6th place for Felipe Massa was better than Williams expected. As Rosberg took the spoils of victory Hamilton could have made a podium finish had he not been the victim of a first lap collision. However 7th place was better than no finish at all and in the past championships have been decided by a few points. Hamilton knows when the season is at an end the points saved in China could be crucial to the out come of who wins the drivers championship. But it seems that Rosberg can do no wrong at the moment. For Rosberg has scored three wins in a row and has not had to face any hardships, but this is a long season and the 36 points advantage he currently enjoys over Hamilton could evaporate as swiftly as they have been gained. Chinese Grand Prix Race Results: