Lewis Hamilton cruises to an easy victory in the Chinese Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton took a controlled victory at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, keeping both Nico Rosberg and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel at bay throughout the race.

Lewis Hamilton, and Mercedes, took victory in the Chinese F1 Grand Prix in Shanghai, not by the seats of their pants or by wheel to wheel racing, but by employing brain power.

They used the knowledge that Ferrari took a victory in Malaysia because they are easier on tyres, and used that to their advantage.

That meant Lewis Hamilton at the front throughout the race, controlling the pace, and his tyre wear, and putting in a blistering lap or two just before each of his two pit stops to give some breathing space.

It’s a tactic that worked wonderfully well (although Rosberg moaned about being backed in to third place Vettel) and gave Hamilton victory, Mercedes a one-two and Sebastian Vettel a third place.

As the race drew to a close it was Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari closing in on Vettel, with the Williams of Massa and Bottas taking sixth and seventh, demonstrating they are still up there with Ferrari.

Romain Grosjean got seventh place for Lotus courtesy, to a great degree, to his team mate – Pastor Maldonado – driving rather erratically. That said, he was the best of the rest until he had a couple of spins that left him way down the field.

The baby of the grid – Max Verstappen – was heading for an impressive eighth spot in the Toro Rosso until his back axle broke with just a couple of laps to go, gifting eighth to Sauber’s Nasr, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull and Ericsson’s Sauber.

Away from the top ten, McLaren had a marginally better race in Shanghai, with both Alonso and Button finishing the race in 12th and 13th, although Button was dropped to 14th after a five second penalty for rear-ending Maldonado.

But the message we should probably take from Shanghai is that Mercedes are still in a different league, Ferrari has a chance for the odd win if there’s lots of heat and twisty bits, Williams are almost the measure of Ferrari – and the rest are also-rans.

At least for now.