Starting from pole Lewis Hamilton got his foot on the gas and broke away into an early lead which he held throughout.

Fernando Alonso proving his worth soon scrapped his way up to second from 5th where he started with the two red bulls just behind.

With his team-mate way out in front Nico Rosberg in the other Mercedes began threading his way up the field. On Lap 23 he and Sebastian Vettel were embroiled in a tremendous battle for third place which was eventually won by Rosberg.

After this Daniel Ricciardo was the fastest of the two Red Bulls and so on lap 25 the team called team orders and told Vettel to let him pass.

But the four-time world champion was having none of it and when the team explained that Ricciardo had fresher tires and should go ahead his response was tough luck.

And so the Australian was forced to get past the hard way something that proved costly later on.

By lap 41 of 56, Fernando Alonso had driven tactically and physically to near perfection but there was no more he could do to fend off a superior Mercedes and using his DRS Nico Rosberg took away second place on the back straight.

The two Mercedes were then left to cruise at the front. Hamilton by now had generated a more than 15 second gap and so Alonso's attention for the remainder of the race had to be focused on fending off the charging Red Bull of Daniel Ricardo just behind him. But as the Australian explained he just ran out of time.

"I was really hoping to get on the podium and we were really close at the end to catching Alonso and I gave it everything I had so I'm not disappointed with anything I did but just disappointed there wasn't maybe two more laps in the race."

At the chequered flag it was the two Mercedes of Hamilton and Rosberg then Alonso in his Ferarri ahead of the two Red Bulls of Ricciardo and Vettel.

Then it was Nico Hulkenberg scoring another solid top 10 finish for Force India ahead of William's Driver Valtteri Botas in seventh.

Kimi Raikkonen - who has a huge Chinese following - had a terrible weekend here and ended up in eighth position.

Sergio Perez of Force India and Daniil Kvyat of Toro Rosso rounded off the top 10.

On the podium the race winner Lewis Hamilton thanked his Chinese fans - and I asked him afterwards what makes them so special:

"Every year I come here I feel like my fan base is growing every year here. You know growing up in Stevenage I never ever thought that I would fly half way round the world and have so many people who choose to wear my cap to wear my top to have my flag and really support it's absolutely phenomenal. And that's why I always say we win and we loose together and this morning we left and one of my fans she gave me a digital photo frame and on it they did a special video for me from all the fan base and for me it's just touched my heart so much so I want to say a big thank you to all them."

Despite only one race win it is Nico Rosberg who leads the Driver's Championship by four points over his team-mate Hamilton, with Fernando Alonso a distant third.

The Spaniard will be hoping to close this gap when they move to his home Grand Prix in three weeks time.

For CRI I'm Alexander Aucott in Shanghai.