Three is the magic number for Hamilton and Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton might have finished in P1 in China on Sunday, but three was very much the number of the day for the 2008 world champion. Having taken his third pole position of the season on Saturday, the Mercedes driver secured his third win of the season on race day, which also happened to be his third career victory in Shanghai.

It was also the first time in Hamilton’s career that he’d taken three consecutive Grand Prix wins and Nico Rosberg’s second place finish made it three consecutive one-twos for Mercedes. The Silver Arrows are the first team since Ferrari in 2004 to score three one-twos in a row and the first to lead every lap of a season's first four races since Williams in 1992.

On this occasion Hamilton led every lap of the race from pole, but Rosberg denied his team mate a second ‘grand slam’ of the season by taking the fastest race lap. The Briton’s victory did, however, draw him level with F1 racing greats Jim Clark and Niki Lauda on 25 career wins - good enough for joint eighth on the all-time winners list.

Sunday’s race was the 100th consecutive race that at least one Mercedes-powered car has finished in the points. The last time a Mercedes-powered car was not in the points was the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji.

Ferrari also extended their record streak of consecutive points finishes. The Scuderia have now scored in 71 consecutive races, whilst Fernando Alonso’s third place brought the team their first podium finish since Brazil 2013.

Elsewhere there were contrasting fortunes for Red Bull-backed drivers. Sebastian Vettel came home behind Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo for the second race in a row - that’s the first time the world champion has been beaten by his team mate in consecutive races since he was bested by Mark Webber in Malaysia and China in 2012.

Meanwhile, at sister team Toro Rosso, Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat continued his impressive start to the season by coming home in the points for the third time in four races.