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Lewis Hamilton beats Sebastian Vettel in Chinese Grand Prix

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton mastered Shanghai's changing conditions and stayed clear of squabbling rivals to win the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday. The Briton eased his Mercedes across the line 6.2 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. Max Verstappen, who started 16th, finished a surprise third to hand his Red Bull team their 100th podium. It was Hamilton's 54th career win and a record fifth in Shanghai. But it was the triple champion's first this season and returned Mercedes to the top of the podium after Vettel won last month's season-opening race for a resurgent Ferrari. "I'm so happy with my first win of the year and I can't believe it if I'm honest," said Hamilton after the race, which also handed him his 106th podium, putting him joint second with Alain Prost on the list of drivers with most rostrum results. "What I said to Sebastian as I left the last race ... I said I'm coming back in the next one. When I got on the podium it was like 'I told you'." MOTOR-F1-CHINA/ View 12 Photos Hamilton, who finished second to Vettel in Melbourne, heads into the next race in Bahrain in a week's time tied on points with the German. Mercedes, meanwhile, lead the constructors' standings by one point over Ferrari. Hamilton started from pole position, but the conditions were a bit of a lottery for all the drivers with the track damp in patches but drying quickly. He kept the lead off the line ahead of Vettel, who came under investigation for lining up out of position on his grid slot. The German, though, stayed second, fending off Valtteri Bottas in the other Mercedes, who had started third. Lance Stroll, the 18-year-old rookie, spun off the track on the first lap after making contact with Force India's Sergio Perez. The Canadian beached his Williams in the gravel, bringing out the virtual safety car. Vettel took the opportunity to dive into the pits to change to dry weather tires. His gamble backfired when Antonio Giovinazzi — standing in for Pascal Wehrlein at Sauber — crashed, bringing out the actual safety car two laps later. The four-times world champion found himself bottled up behind Ricciardo and his slower team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, costing him valuable time. As the trio squabbled for position, Hamilton pulled clear at the front. By the time Vettel managed to get past, with a series of spectacular overtaking moves that included banging wheels with his former team-mate, Hamilton was too far ahead.

Hamilton wins in Singapore as Vettel crashes out from pole

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton took a huge stride toward his fourth Formula One title on Sunday by winning an incident-packed Singapore Grand Prix after Ferrari title rival Sebastian Vettel crashed out at the start. The Mercedes driver now has a 28-point cushion over the German with six of the 20 races remaining. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, who also emerged from the opening lap carnage unscathed, was second for the third year in a row with Finland's Valtteri Bottas completing the podium for Mercedes. "God blessed me today for sure," said Hamilton, who set a lap record on his way to a third win in a row, as he spoke from the podium on a night where everything fell into his lap. "I came here today really thinking it was about damage limitation, and we've come out ahead. So I'm very grateful," he said later. "To come to a track that was potentially our weakest circuit, and come away with a win like this and those points, it's really such a fortunate scenario... so I definitely have a skip in my step." The Briton cashed in after Vettel, Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull's front row contender Max Verstappen smashed into each other as they raced off the wet starting grid and into the first corner. Raikkonen had made a storming start from fourth, Vettel a less impressive one from pole position while Verstappen went for the middle ground and was caught in a Ferrari sandwich as they converged. The stewards summoned all three and decided no driver was predominantly to blame. BITTER BLOW The first race to be hit by rain in the decade that Singapore has hosted Formula One had started in treacherous conditions, puddles gleaming in the floodlights, after a formation lap behind the safety car. With Hamilton starting fifth, everything looked set for Vettel to retake the overall lead that he had surrendered only two weeks earlier at Monza in Italy. And then it all went wrong, the collision with Raikkonen punching a hole in the side of Vettel's car before he spun into the wall at turn three. "It's bitter but it's done," said the German, a four times Singapore GP winner, whose retirement ended a run of 18 successive points finishes and left him with a mountain to climb. "Championship-wise it's a big step forward," recognized Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. "The quickest car and the quickest driver were out within a minute into the race and that can happen all the time.

Daimler chairman agrees with German Greens on reducing emissions

Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche spoke at a Green Party congress in Germany earlier this week and said he agreed with the party's urge to dramatically cut transportation-based greenhouse-gas emissions by expanding plug-in vehicle sales, Reuters says. Zetsche stopped short of backing the Greens' suggestion to ban gas- and diesel-powered vehicles by 2030, though. The man must keep his job, after all. Zetsche did say that reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from the transportation sector was "necessary," and his company has made plans to do just that. Daimler representatives said at the Paris Motor Show earlier this year that Smart and Mercedes-Benz both planned to debut more than 10 electric vehicles within the next decade, and that plug-ins may account for as much as 25 percent of Mercedes-Benz's sales by then. Moreover, Dr. Thomas Weber, Head of Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars Development, said in June that Mercedes could be selling as many as 100,000 EVs a year by the end of the decade. Last month, Mercedes-Benz announced that its EQ electric-SUV concept would go on sale by 2020, and that the Bremen factory that's producing the model will broaden its plug-in vehicle production further. Zetsche's cautious support notwithstanding, the German government appears to be doing its own part to reduce emissions from the country's light-duty vehicles. Earlier this year, Germany enacted a plan that provides as much as 4,000 euros ($4,270) in perks for people who buy new electric vehicles, with German automakers agreeing to foot about half of the estimated $1.4 billion bill. German lawmakers had also floated the idea of a 10-year moratorium on electric-vehicle taxes for cars purchased before 2020. Related Video: News Source: Reuters via Automotive News Europe-sub.req.Image Credit: Ralph Orlowski / Reuters Government/Legal Green Mercedes-Benz smart Electric