Seven Races, Seven Winners

The seventh race in the Formula One calender has seen the record extending seventh winner as Lewis Hamilton comes through after a better strategy to beat Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. Alonso had the lead after the first set of pit stops and would lead up until lap 64 where the option of not pitting a second time saw Hamilton cruise to victory, with the Spaniard slumping to fifth.

The start was surprisingly quiet with only Paul Di Resta gaining a meaningful place up into seventh. Vettel had a very clean getaway and instantly looked to stretch out a lead. Felipe Massa would overtake Nico Rosberg on the second lap to move into fifth. Di Resta would also overtake the Mercedes a lap later to claim sixth.

Massa's good weekend would turn slightly sour when he span on lap six, but he was able to continue despite falling to 13th. Jenson Button's afternoon began with Kimi Raikonnen overtaking him on lap 15 to move the Finn into seventh.

The first man to pit was leader Sebastian Vettel on lap-16 but Hamilton would get the jump on the German by pitting a lap later. Alonso would stay out for a further two laps before pitting and overtaking the pair of them to maintain the theoretical lead. Hamilton did overtake Alonso on lap-20.

Surprisingly, there was no Safety Car during the race. But the first retirement came on lap-24 when Narain Karthikeyan span out before parking the car in a place it could be removed without the Safety Car. His team-mate, Pedro De La Rosa, would follow him three lap later when he suffered from over-heating brakes.

Rosberg had managed to gain seventh by lap-42 because of the second pit-stop that put him ahead of Sergio Perez and Kimi Raikonnen who were still yet to pit. His Mercedes team-mate, Michael Schumacher, had once again suffered bad luck with his DRS flap unable to close. The mechanics couldn't do anything about it and Schumacher had to be retired on lap-44.

Hamilton pitted for his second time on lap-51 and it was a little, suggesting it could cost him the race. But he recovered by setting two fastest laps and, by that time, it was already too late for Alonso or Vettel to respond as a pit-stop would immediately surrender their place to the McLaren.

Lap-57 saw Massa and Perez overtake Rosberg for fifth and sixth. That was followed by Perez overtaking Massa for fifth and Rosberg regained sixth by also overtaking the Ferrari who went into the pits.

Hamilton's surge began on lap-62 where he was able to overtake a defenceless Vettel to move up to second and would then do the same to Alonso two laps later. To avoid a dramatic decline, Vettel also pitted on lap-62 and this paid dividends compared to Alonso.

By lap-66 Romain Grosjean had made his one stop strategy work by overtaking Alonso into second. Fellow one-stopper, Perez, would gain the other podium place two laps later. The Spaniard would ultimately finish fifth as Vettel also managed to overtake him on the penultimate lap. Race result:

1.Hamilton (McLaren), 2.Grosjean (Lotus), 3.Perez (Sauber), 4.Vettel (Red Bull), 5.Alonso (Ferrari), 6.Rosberg (Mercedes), 7.Webber (Red Bull), 8.Raikonnen (Lotus), 9.Kobayashi (Sauber), 10.Massa (Ferrari), 11.Di Resta (Force India), 12.Hulkenberg (Force India), 13.Maldonado (Williams), 14.Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), 15.Vergne (Toro Rosso), 16.Button (McLaren), 17.Senna (Williams), 18.Kovalainen (Caterham), 19.Petrov (Caterham), 20.Pic (Marussia) DNF: Karthikeyan (HRT), De La Rosa (HRT), Schumacher (Mercedes), Glock (Marussia)