Lewis Hamilton came one step closer to winning his maiden formula one driver’s title by winning the 2008 formula one Chinese Grand Prix from pole. His closest competitor Felipe Massa was second in his Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton was fast from the start pulling away easily and making the Ferraris look gasping for pace. What is interesting though is that Kimi Raikkonen had slowed down to let Felipe Massa through much like a lot of the other formula one teams do within their teams. So when are team orders prohibited ? It did affect the outcome of the race. The swap reduced the damage to the Massa championship campaign but may just prove to be futile in the last race.

Fernando Alonso put in another strong(er?) performance to get a 4th place finish. The BMWs were 5th and 6th with Heidfeld finishing ahead of Robert Kubica this time.

The Red Bull of David Coulthard was 10th while teammate Mark WEbber was way back in 14th place.

Force India were as dismal as ever with Adrian Sutil not finishing the race and Fisichella finishing in 17th place (last).

The top 8 drivers were :

1 L. Hamilton  Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
2 F. Massa      Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
3 K. Raikkonen  Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
4 F. Alonso    ING Renault F1 Team
5 N. Heidfeld  BMW Sauber F1 Team
6 R. Kubica    BMW Sauber F1 Team
7 T. Glock      Panasonic Toyota Racing
8 N. Piquet Jr. ING Renault F1 Team

So the title fight goes down to Brazil now, stay tuned for a post on that

Image: McLaren.com Media