Fernando Alonso took the chequered flag for the first time in 13 races to ignite his Formula One world title challenge this season as Lewis Hamilton held off a late charge by Sebastian Vettel to clinch third place.
After retiring early last time out in Malaysia three weeks ago, the Ferrari star drove a flawless race to win the Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit.
It was Alonso’s 31st victory of his career, drawing him level with Nigel Mansell on the sport’s all-time win list, leaving only Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna ahead of him.
Alonso finished a comfortable 10 seconds clear of Kimi Raikkonen in his Lotus, with pole-sitter Hamilton having to settle for third for the second consecutive race.
The 28 year-old Briton had to fight off Vettel over the closing lap, finishing just 0.2secs ahead of the three-times champion in his Red Bull.
From the outset as soon as qualifying had ended it was always going to be an intriguing battle between the team’s technical boffins as to who had made the right strategy call.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Alonso Ferrari 1h36:26.945 2. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault + 10.168s 3. Hamilton Mercedes + 12.322s 4. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 12.525s 5. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 35.285s 6. Massa Ferrari + 40.827s 7. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 42.691s 8. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 51.084s 9. Grosjean Lotus-Renault + 53.423s 10. Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari + 56.598s 11. Perez McLaren-Mercedes + 1m03.860s 12. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1m12.604s 13. Bottas Williams-Renault + 1m33.861s 14. Maldonado Williams-Renault + 1m35.453s 15. Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth + 1 lap 16. Pic Caterham-Renault + 1 lap 17. Chilton Marussia-Cosworth + 1 lap 18. van der Garde Caterham-Renault + 1 lap