Chinese GP: 10 talking points

"The secret is to win as slowly as possible..."

This famed quote, attributed to both Juan Manuel Fangio and Niki Lauda, applied neatly to Lewis Hamilton's winning drive this weekend, the Brit conserving tyres and fuel while maintaining enough pace to secure victory.

However, it was a tactic that caused some friction in the Mercedes garage as Nico Rosberg complained that his teammate's careful approach was forcing him back into the clutches of Sebastian Vettel.

Rosberg said after the race that Hamilton was "just thinking about himself", a claim the race winner denied in a frosty press conference.

Despite coming away with another one-two finish, Merc chief Toto Wolff was forced to ensure that his drivers settled their differences with some "constructive criticism" in the post-race debrief. It's becoming a bit of a habit.

Many wondered if Ferrari could repeat Sebastian Vettel's victory from a fortnight ago, but the race in China unfolded as expected, with the cooler conditions helping Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg look after their tyres much better than they managed in Sepang.

Having said that, Vettel and Raikkonen kept reasonably close to their Merc rivals for the first two stints, giving credence to the hope that they will get more competitive as the season progresses.

The current gap between the constructors is more difficult to assess, with early fuel loads and Mercedes' conservative strategy likely factors behind the Italian team's proximity before the second round of stops.

The suspicion is that the champions' W06 Hybrid has plenty more to give, meaning it could be a while yet before we see a sustained fight at the front.

Snapping at your race engineer is fast becoming fashionable on the grid, with Carlos Sainz the latest driver to join Lewis Hamilton in the "Don't talk to me in the corners" club.

The Toro Rosso rookie copied Hamilton word for word after an early spin which he blamed on distracting feedback.

Nico Rosberg also joined in during the second stint, telling race engineer Tony Ross: "Okay, you need to reduce the communication!"

The build-up to the Grand Prix was dominated by news that Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz had threatened to pull his team from the sport if suppliers Renault failed to deliver a competitive engine.

It's the latest development in a saga which has seen Christian Horner, Adrian Newey and Renault themselves exchange strong words about their miserable level of performance this season.

However, Sunday's race provided further evidence that Red Bull have other issues to contend with. A launch failure dropped Daniel Ricciardo to virtually the back of the grid at lights out, with the Australian struggling to keep the car on the track in the heavy braking zones at Turn 6 and Turn 14 thereafter.

He was still smiling afterwards, though.

Literally. Hamilton complained of an overheating seat more than once over the weekend, which prompted the mechanics to put more insulation between the chassis and the world champion's backside prior to the start of the race.

Lewis said: "It doesn't burn through the overalls but your butt's pretty hot! It felt like you'd had a real whooping, that's all I can compare it to."

Mercedes will hope that's the last of their problems with rears...

If there were any questions remaining over the 17-year-old's potential in F1 after the first two races, there can surely be none left now. The youngest driver in the sport's history pulled off a string of brave overtaking moves to climb into eighth place, before an engine problem forced him to retire in the closing stages.

Reflecting on his outstanding manoeuvres, Verstappen said: "If you see a gap, you just go for it."

Senna-esque?

In more ways than one.

Not only did the Fin manage to keep up with Sebastian Vettel for the first time this season, he also treated us to some classic ‘Radio Kimi' towards the end while lapping former teammate Fernando Alonso.

"Come on, get that McLaren out of the way," deadpanned the 2007 champion, shortly before doing the same again behind Jenson Button.

Crashtor's dreadful season last year appears to be coming back to haunt him, with the Venezuelan forced to retire after being shunted from behind by McLaren's Jenson Button.

Button later apologised for "getting a little overexcited", meaning Pastor has now, in his own words, been a "victim of other drivers' incidents" for the third race in succession.

That said, Maldonado did have a couple of hairy moments of his own making, narrowly avoiding a repeat of his crash in the pit entry lane last year before spinning wildly a short time later.

Well, one of them is anyway.

Free Practice 2 was briefly interrupted by a man who seemingly had his eyes on a drive, running across the start-finish straight before diving through a gap in the pit lane wall.

The intruder then reportedly wandered over to Ferrari's garage and asked to try a car. The only seat he was offered was in police custody.

Sort of, anyway. There was no repeat of last year's premature chequered flag, but the race ended under the safety car after marshals struggled to get Max Verstappen's stricken Toro Rosso through a gap in the pit lane wall.

After several failed attempts to steer the car out of danger, the team's pit crew were eventually forced to intervene by removing the front wing.

At least the crowd were able to see the funny side.