Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (C) of Britain, Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel (L) of Germany and Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands celebrate on the podium after the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, east China, April 9, 2017.
Merc's W06 in the lead.
The Briton, who started on pole, steered his Mercedes to his fifth Chinese Grand Prix win, beating Vettel's Ferrari by just over six seconds with Red Bull's Max Verstappen finishing third after an early safety auto drama.
Vettel recovered from a poor start from row one and, after being stuck behind Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen early on, began to show the pace that swept the German to victory in Melbourne two weeks ago.
"So yeah, I love this fight".
The Mercedes driver dominated the race in Asia from start to finish in wet conditions, with Ferrari's Vettel coming home second, in a duel that is tipped to define the 2017 season.
He won by 6.250 seconds after a chaotic start, reaping the rewards of the safety vehicle going through the pit lane following an early smash from Giovinazzi, who crashed out in qualifying on Saturday and hit the pit wall after losing control of his auto.
"I also like this formula a lot in that you can drive on the limit in the race compared to how it was in the last few years".
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Lewis Hamilton's so-called "bromance" with Sebastian Vettel has become a defining storyline of the new season, but the Briton is not anticipating a messy break-up even if their title battle goes the distance this year. The damp start brought Red Bull into contention but it seemed likely they would drop behind Ferrari as the track tried out.
"I hope they're feeling the spirit", triple champion Hamilton said after Sunday's race, referring to his team.
"Obviously, we were a little unfortunate with the safety vehicle early on", Vettel said.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner says third and fourth was the maximum for his team in China, though he thinks the team was helped by Ferrari leaving Kimi Raikkonen in "no man's land" late in the race. Vettel's Ferrari was second.
"I do? Okay, this dude, this dude", Hamilton said, putting his arm around the 19-year-old Dutchman's shoulder. Today we finished second, very happy with that.
"For me what's so exciting is knowing that I'm fighting against such a great driver".
"He squeezed me, but we had good fun". Ricciardo, meanwhile, kept the Ferraris at bay as Raikkonen initially refused to let Vettel by.
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