2016 Chinese Grand Prix
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 3 of 21 in the 2016 Formula One season | |||
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| Date | 17 April 2016 | ||
| Official name | 2016 Formula 1 Pirelli Chinese Grand Prix | ||
| Location | Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 5.451 km (3.387 mi) | ||
| Distance | 56 laps, 305.066 km (189.559 mi) | ||
| Weather | Sunny 21 °C (70 °F) air temperature 37 °C (99 °F) track temperature 4.8 m/s (16 ft/s) wind from the northeast |
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| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Mercedes | ||
| Time | 1:35.402 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |
 Nico Hülkenberg
|
Force India-Mercedes | |
| Time | 1:39.824 on lap 48 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Mercedes | ||
| Second | Ferrari | ||
| Third | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | ||
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The 2016 Chinese Grand Prix (formally known as the 2016 Formula 1 Pirelli Chinese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race which was held on 17 April 2016 at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China. The race was the third round of the 2016 season, and marked the thirteenth time that the Chinese Grand Prix has been run as a round of the Formula One World Championship. The race was convincingly won by Nico Rosberg, who finished over 30 seconds ahead of second-placed Sebastian Vettel. Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton suffered a number of setbacks both in qualifying and during the race itself, eventually finishing in 7th place. This was the first race in which all cars were classified as finishers since the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix.
Following widespread criticism of the controversial "elimination" qualifying format used in Australia and Bahrain, the system was abandoned for the Chinese Grand Prix and the three-period system used between 2006 and 2015 was reintroduced.
Fernando Alonso returned to racing for the McLaren team after being ruled out of the Bahrain Grand Prix due to injuries sustained during an accident in the Australian Grand Prix.
Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the medium, soft and super-soft tyres for this race weekend.
Per the regulations for the 2016 season, two ninety-minute practice sessions were held on Friday and another one-hour session was held before qualifying on Saturday. In the first session, Nico Rosberg was fastest, setting a time of 1:38.037, 0.146 seconds ahead of teammate Hamilton, with Sebastian Vettel in third. There was an early red flag period as Felipe Massa spun out in turn 6, triggered by a deflated left rear tyre, which reoccurred when he came back to the track later in the session. A similar problem caught out Kevin Magnussen later on, who suffered a broken suspension in the process and crashed. This debris brought out the red flag again. Overall, about thirty minutes of runtime were lost due to the pauses. Lewis Hamilton had set the early tempo, but spun out twice at turn 11, reporting issues with his brakes. Championship leader Nico Rosberg was not without problems as well, as he nursed his car back into pitlane near the end of the session, caused by a fault in the power unit.
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