Lewis Hamilton has now won the Chinese Grand Prix for a fourth time and while it wasn’t the dominant fashion in which he pummeled the field in Australia, it was a reversal of his Malaysian Grand Prix fortunes as he kept his teammate, Nico Rosberg, behind him as well as both Ferraris.

Lewis started the race with an intent to win by staging his car at a very aggressive angle at the starting grid and led into lap one never looking back. Hamilton led Rosberg and Vettel giving Mercedes a 1,2 win and serious points haul in China.

The question everyone was asking was if Ferrari could repeat their challenge in cooler temperatures in China and if they could, then the season just got more interesting and the fans would be spared a Mercedes domination with only the two teammates capable of challenging for wins.

Win

Mercedes was concerned over Ferrari’s win in Malaysia and were determined to redouble their efforts to ensure a victory in China. Strategies were designed to manage tire degradation and stage a 1, 2 result. If there were concerns over Malaysia, what Mercedes discovered is that they still have pace in hand and can mange a race to victory without Ferrari offering a massive threat.

While Ferrari may not have had race-winning pace in China, what we did realize is that the lack of pace they showed in Australia was possibly a one-off situation. Ferrari is a competitor and closer to Mercedes than Red Bull were in 2014. Ferrari now knows that any bobble by Mercedes will be a chance to win, not just place. They may not be faster than Mercedes yet but they are there or thereabout and that’s a big gain from their 2014 campaign.

Another win for the race is Kimi Raikkonen who didn’t suffered a punctured tire or errant contact from another driver to place right on the tail of his teammate for a well deserved fourth place. Kimi’s radio messages about slower cars were a race highlight.

If you’re looking for feel-good stories, the 7th place finish for Lotus’s Romain Grosjean is a positive points scoring finish for a team that desperately needed it. His teammate had a race more akin to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride but Grosjean kept his head and foot down and came home in the points.

Sauber also had a win as both cars finished in the points and that’s huge for a team that was sued in Australia, lost millions in making a contract error go away and failed to score any points in 2014. The team has Ferrari to thank for their reversal of fortune and Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson to thank as drivers who are driving well.

For a team who has only had one car finish one race so far in 2015, McLaren have made significant gains getting Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button to 12th and 13th respectively—with Button falling to 14th due to a penalty. That’s a big win for development in Woking.

If you’re a Manor GP fan, then getting both cars home is a win.

Fail

Force India had a tough weekend and maybe that’s to be expected given they have a car that just wasn’t ready for prime time and a new B-spec isn’t due until Austria. You can also place Red Bull in that category with Daniil Kvyat’s fire and DNF.

Williams was beaten by Ferrari and while they were hoping the cooler temps and track would favor their car, it didn’t and the team finished 5th and 6th with Felipe Massa Leading the way. This is also a fail for Bottas because as much as he is being heralded as the next big thing, if he can’t beat Massa, he simply becomes a Williams driver like so many before him.

Daniel Ricciardo’s Balked start cost him ten spots at the start and rendered his race a race of recovery instead of a race of opportunity.

Toro Rosso had a terrific finish in the cards for Max Verstappen who suffered a failure on the front straight in the waning laps prompting a safety car which rendered the race as a finish under yellow flags.

We have to offer the Chinese Grand Prix security for letting a fan run across a hot track during FP2 on Friday as he wanted to try out a Ferrari…well, who wouldn’t?

Pastor Maldonado had a Pastorized weekend by over cooking the pit lane entry twice, once during the race, and also spinning a few times as well as being punted by Jenson Button.

Button was handed a penalty for the infraction and it seems he was a bit confused by Maldonado’s presence. It seemed to me that Maldonado moved twice to defend a line and Button moved while trying to brake and that usually never works well.

The Keystone Cop routine of trying to remove the stricken car of Max Verstappen on the front straight had the crowd more vocal than anytime during the race. The Chinese love a debacle apparently—well, who doesn’t? To be fair, it was a small opening and the car was at a tough angle. The front wing had to be removed to get it through the small opening on the pit wall.

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