15:03 Hamilton returns to the grid and angle his car across the track to cover off Rosberg. We're ready to go...

15:02 All the cars got away cleanly. So it looks like we will actually have a 20-car start for the first time this year. Happy days!

15:00 Only Kvyat and Sainz have opted to start on the medium tyres. Alonso, Button, Perez, Hulk, Verstappen, Stevens, Maldonado and Mehri are all on brand new soft tyres. The top ten are on the used softs from Q2.

14:59 Cars fired up, tyre blankets off and the mechanics take a step back ahead of the formation lap...

14:55: Remember, its the front left tyre that tends to go first here. That means the drivers struggle to manage the degradation as they have a limited amount of methods to protect the fronts compared to the way they protect the rears. It also means that this track can throw up an unusual result or two.

14:53: Marc asks: "Does Sauber have a new front wing?"

Yes it does, Marc. It's actually the first new wing of the season for Sauber as the old one looked suspiciously similar to the one used in 2014. It's amazing what a difference the new Ferrari power unit has made to that car.

14:51: The conditions are warmer than they were on Friday when the teams last did a long run on the tyres. That should help most teams, although Mercedes would have been happy with the cooler conditions as tyre warm-up is rarely an issue for the W06-Hybrid and its oodles of downforce.

14:47: The drivers are getting suited and booted, just over ten minutes to go and the grid is slowly being cleared of all the hangers on and media types.

14:45: More bad news for Red Bull as Ricciardo cracks into his third new Renault engine in three races this weekend...

14:44: The feeling is that the soft tyres won't last even though they are 1.5s-2.0s quicker. The medium should be the tyre of choice for two of the three stints.

14:42: We're expecting a two-stop race. All of those below have to start the race on the used softs they ran in Q2 and then they can start working their way through the allocation they have left.

14:40: Here's the new tyres the front runners have left for the race:
Hamilton - 2 medium, 1 soft
Rosberg - 2 medium, 1 soft
Vettel - 2 medium, 1 soft
Massa - 3 medium, 0 soft
Bottas - 3 medium, 0 soft
Raikkonen - 2 medium, 1 soft
Ricciardo - 2 medium, 0 soft

14:37: The cars are heading to the grid. Hamilton gets caught up leaving the pits alongside Vettel. "The Ferraris are so dangerous" he says as he complains about Vettel completing a practice start as the Mercedes drew level at the exit of the pit lane.

14:30: Hello and welcome to ESPN's coverage of the Chinese Grand Prix.It's dry, sunny and relatively warm for China. We should have a grid of 20 cars for the first time this year and the potential for another interesting race with the Mercedes split by just 0.042s in qualifying and the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel ready to stalk them from third on the grid.

Lap 1

Hamilton leads Rosberg away at the start as Vettel holds third ahead of a fast-starting Bottas

But Raikkonen isn't hanging around either and he passes Massa out of the opening corners and then passes Bottas into Turn 6. Great start for Kimi as he puts the car in fourth where he should have qualified it.

Lap 2

Hamilton leads by 1.181s from his team-mate.

Sainz spins in Turn 1 on the second lap. He keeps the car going but drops right to the back of the pack. He simply ran too wide and lost the car on the less grippy part of the track. He radios in to say "don't talk to me in the corners, please"

Lap 3

Maldonado makes a move on Ericsson at the first corner to take ninth place. We might actually see the true potential of the Lotus today.

After a sloppy start, Ricciardo moves back ahead of Alonso through sector two.

Lap 4

Rosberg is quicker on lap three than Hamilton and is keeping his team-mate honest. But it's going to be very tricky for him to manufacture a way around the lead Mercedes considering he will get second choice on strategy.

Lap 5

Perez moves past Kvyat at the end of lap four. This is not where Red Bull had hoped to be, scrapping with the Force Indias and McLarens

Ricciardo is all over the back of Kvyat too and now coming under pressure from Alonso to hold onto 15th.

Kvyat told not to fight Ricciardo as Kvyat is on mediums and Ricciardo is on mediums, but still he is not making it easy.

Lap 6

Kvyat is still not making this easy for his team-mate. This is directly disobeying team orders.

Now Ricciardo gets through with a lock up under braking at Turn 6 and a better exit. Now Alonso will attack Kvyat.

Lap 7

Hamilton is marginally quicker that Rosberg and they are both 0.5s than Vettel in the Ferrari.

Vettel is 2.7s off Rosberg, who in turn is just over a second off Hamilton.

Lap 8

Rosberg takes a tenth out of Hamilton on that last lap. Vettel is also quicker and has Raikkonen waiting behind him ready to pounce if he makes a mistake.

Raikkonen is told everything is on target, which must be a message in relation to tyre degradation.

Maldonado lines up Nasr on the 1.2km straight and seals the deal to take eighth place in Turn 14.

Lap 9

So it's now two Mercedes followed by two Ferraris followed by two Williams followed by two Lotuses followed by two Saubers.

But Verstappen is making an effort to mix it up at the back and get his Toro Rosso past Ericsson and into the top ten.

And he does it with a very bold move into Turn 14. Ericsson had to take avoiding action to prevent an accident - a bit bolshy, but it's got him the place.

Lap 10

Hulkenberg's Force India retires from 12th. "I lost the gearbox, something bad happened".

A shame as that car was doing a bit better than we imagined. Team-mate Perez now inherits 12th place.

Lap 11

Nasr pits.

Rosberg remains 1.2s off Hamilton. Vettel is 3.6s off Rosberg and Raikkonen is a second off Vettel

Lap 12

Vettel loses 0.3s on that last lap. They now also have a yellow flag sector in which to slow as Hulkenberg's Force India is recovered.

Maldonado and Perez pitted at the end of the last lap. Let's wait to see which of the front runners dives in first...

Lap 13

Hamilton breaks under the 1:44s. That Mercedes is just getting quicker and quicker as this stint progresses and he now has a gap of 1.6s over Rosberg.

Vettel told to pit after the gap to Rosberg increases to 4.6s.

Lap 14

The two Mercedes stay out as Vettel comes in. He will take on the soft tyres, which is significant as Mercedes may not be kind enough on its tyres to take on the softs over the mediums.

Vettel will also be super quick in comparison to the Mercs which are now on some rather second-hand soft tyres with over 16 laps on them (including the Q2 laps they did).

Lap 15

Hamilton pits. And he is also able to take on softs. In a radio exchange before his stop, Hamilton said "these [soft] tyres are lasting really well", so the tyres are holding up well.

Rosberg to pit next... and will also go onto softs.

Lap 16

Rosberg pits. Judging by the Mercedes radio traffic, they had planned to go onto mediums originally but the good first stint means they have stuck with softs.

Vettel is closer to Rosberg after that first round of pit stops, but not enough to worry the Mercedes driver too much. Raikkonen also pitted at the end of the last lap and resumes the race in fourth.

Kvyat's Renault engine goes bang in a pretty spectacular way. "I'm on fire, on fire, on fire".

Lap 17

The marshals doe their job and cover the Red Bull in fire extinguisher powder. Kvyat is away and safe, but that's the end of his afternoon.

As the gaps shake out from that first pit stop, Rosberg is three seconds off Hamilton, Vettel is two seconds off Rosberg and Raikkonen is five seconds off Vettel. Massa is a further six seconds back in the first of the two Williams.

Lap 18

Hamilton made an error somewhere in the middle sector on that last lap and the gap closes to 2.1s. Vettel is keeping a watching brief 2.6s off the second Mercedes.

Button closes on Alonso and passes his McLaren team-mate for 15th place at Turn 14. Alonso didn't put up a fight.

Lap 19

Hamilton stabilises his lap times with a 1:44.078, Rosberg is 2.2s behind now. Vettel also sets a 1:44.0 to close slightly on the second Mercedes. However, Raikkonen is the man on the move with a 1:43.428.

In the pit stops Maldonado got ahead of team-mate Grosjean. A very strong race from the No.13 driver this afternoon.

Verstappen pulls another bold move at Turn 14 to take ninth place from Nasr.

Lap 20

Rosberg: "Lewis is driving very slowly, tell him to speed up". Rosberg appears concerned with the Ferrari getting bigger in his mirrors. Vettel is 1.6s off Rosberg now.

Lap 21

Rosberg is 2.3s off Hamilton, Vettel 1.6s off Rosberg.

Rosberg: "If I go closer, I destroy my tyres. That's the problem"

Rosberg knows he probably doesn't have the pace to bring the fight wheel-to-wheel. Hamilton is duly told to hurry up - it is a team sport after all... isn't it?

Lap 22

Rosberg closes slightly to 2.1s off Hamilton. This is interesting because Ferrari forced Mercedes to take the soft tyres in this second stint and now the Mercedes are struggling to manage them. Hamilton may well respond saying he is going at the pace necessary to look after his tyres and if that puts Rosberg in a tricky position then so be it.

Ricciardo tries a move on Ericsson for 12th at Turn 14 but overshoots and can't make it stick.

Lap 23

Vettel is now 1.5s off Rosberg and will be filling the Mercedes' mirrors.

Raikkonen remains 3.9s off Vettel but looking at his lap times, is capable of quick times. He may just be biding his time and looking after his tyres.

Lap 24

Hamilton leads Rosberg by 1.9s, who leads Vettel by 1.4s. Once again, Raikkonen was the fastest of the top four but remains 3.7s off his team-mate.

Massa is 16.5s off Raikkonen, so Williams are in a race of their own ahead of the Lotus.

Gearbox problem for Sainz. He manages to get it going again, but he was going very slowly indeed a few seconds ago.

Lap 25

Rosberg holds the gap at two seconds to Hamilton and 1.6 to Vettel.

Lap 26

Rosberg sets a personal best with a 1:43.479, so the tyres are still holding in there. He's now 1.8s off Hamilton.

This is a bit tedious at the moment, but I'm hoping we'll have a good battle in the final stint when the mediums go on and the only hope of passing will be to do it on the track.

Lap 27

Hamilton sets a 1:43.508, which is his fastest time of the race so far. That increases the gap to 2.1s. Vettel is 1.5s off Rosberg.

Ricciardo makes a good move on Ericsson to take 11th place into Turn 1. But then Ricciardo makes a mistake under braking for Turn 6 and allows the Sauber back through. Silly mistake by the Red Bull driver.

Lap 28

Hamilton is told a 1:43.3 is the target time otherwise Rosberg will be pitted first and that will allow him the undercut and the possibility to get into the lead.

Hamilton is currently setting 1:43.6s. That is a big wake up call from the Mercedes pit wall, which is trying to get a one-two here and is not worried about the order.

Lap 29

Hamilton remains 1:43.6, Rosberg a 1:43.8 and the gap at 2.4s. I can understand Mercedes insistence that it may have to pit Rosberg first. If Vettel pits, Mercedes will have to react to prevent the undercut.

Vettel asked if he can go faster, he responds: "Not by much. I'm on the limit".

Ricciardo has now got the job done against Ericsson at Turn 14, but that was much harder work than it needed to be.

Lap 30

Now Hamilton picks up the pace with a 1:43.239 - message understood. Rosberg can only manage a 1:43.6 and says he is struggling with his front left.

Vettel is told to pit on this lap to try to take advantage of Rosberg's tyre trouble.

Raikkonen is now 4.4s off Vettel.

Lap 31

Vettel comes into the pits.

Hamilton sets a new fastest lap of the race with a 1:43.008.

Vettel takes on the mediums as Rosberg is told to pit before Hamilton.

Interesting stuff here, but Hamilton's good pace at the moment should mean he holds the lead - it's currently 3.2s.

Lap 32

Vettel is fast but not Hamilton fast.

Rosberg pits.

Lap 33

Not a great stop for Rosberg... but he does come out ahead of Vettel.

Hamilton, meanwhile, shows the true pace of the Mercedes with a 1:42.208 - and that's on some very second hand soft tyres. That suggests he was trying to back Rosberg into Vettel. Interesting stuff..

Raikkonen, meanwhile, is going to try to make this stint last as long as possible to have fresher tyres to attack in the final stint. It's all he can do from the position he is in behind Vettel.

Hamilton will pit at the end of this lap.

Lap 34

Hamilton pits... a good stop as the medium tyres go on and the mechanics tweak the front wing settings. It's no surprise to see him come out well ahead of Rosberg. Those laps on the soft in the 1:42s have given him a big lead even if they made Rosberg sweat.

Maldonado makes his customary mistake of the race, running deep into the pit lane entry and needing a push from the marshals.

Lap 35

Raikkonen pits from a very temporary lead. The medium tyres go on the Ferrari as he comes out well behind Vettel - he has a lot of work to do if his fresher tyres are going to haul in his Ferrari team-mate.

Hamilton complains that his seat is getting hot again. That has been a reoccurring problem this weekend.

Lap 36

The gap at the front is 6.2s as Rosberg sets a personal best on a 1:43.335. Vettel is 3.8s off Rosberg and has a gap of 4.8s over Raikkonen.

Maldonado has now gone off at Turn 6, so it may be a Lotus problem not a Maldonado problem on the No.13 car.

Lap 37

Rosberg closes the gap by 0.4s but Hamilton has fresher tyres and can afford to manage the gap. His main concern will be the hot seat underneath him at the moment.

Vettel is losing time to both Rosberg ahead of him and Raikkonen behind. Raikkonen is now 4.2s off his team-mate. Massa has emerged from his final pit stop 28.8s off the second Ferrari and 8.6s ahead of team-mate Bottas.

Lap 38

Massa is now on the move with a personal best of 1:42.734, that's a decent lap but the Williams hasn't had consistent pace over the course of this race and the gap to the front shows that.

Lap 39

Rosberg continues to chip away at Hamilton's lead and gets the gap down to 5.3s. Vettel is now coming under a bit of pressure from Raikkonen who is 3.6s off his team-mate.

Lap 40

With some biggish gaps at the front, we are watching Verstappen close on Perez who has yet to pit for the third time.

More fun for Maldonado as he spins in the middle sector. After a strong start to this race it's all going a bit pear shaped for the Lotus drivers.

Lap 41

Verstappen passes Perez into Turn 6 with another bold move from a long way back. That moves him up to eighth. Nasr also gets past the Force India to move up to ninth.

Lap 42

"This is good Kimi. Alonso will be a blue flag, just keep closing the gap" - Dave Greenwood's message to his driver Raikkonen. All things that will put a smile on Kimi's face ...

Rosberg has the gap down to 4.6s. Raikkonen has the gap to Vettel down to 3.0s.

Lap 43

The two Mercedes are lapping in the 1:42s, which is much closer to what we were expecting and nearly a second faster than the Ferraris. Of course, fuel levels have gone down, but I think Hamilton was playing games with Rosberg in the middle stint and not exploiting the full potential of the Mercedes.

Lap 44

Ricciardo attacks Ericsson again into Turn 14 and the battle continues through onto the next lap, through the first three corners wheel to wheel and finally the Red Bull passes the Sauber into Turn 6.

Raikkonen complains of McLarens in his way as he laps Alonso. As an ex-McLaren driver and an ex-Alonso team-mate he may have enjoyed lapping him.

Lap 45

Rosberg has the gap down to 5.0s to Hamilton, but Hamilton was quicker on that lap and is clearly managing the gap. Raikkonen gets the gap to Vettel down to 2.8s. However, it will be one thing to catch his Ferrari team-mate and quite another to pass. The only advantage he has is an extra four laps of life in his medium tyres.

Lap 46

Vettel laps both Button and Maldonado who are involved in their own private scrap.

Raikkonen: "Come on, get these two cars out of the way" The Ferrari is now lapping Maldonado and Button who Vettel was passing earlier.

Lap 47

Raikkonen is now 2.9s off Vettel, so that traffic has cost him around 0.4s.

Maldonado passes Button through Turns nine and ten. Impressive stuff even though the Lotus has a significant power advantage. But Button takes 13th place back by using every last bit of the slipstream into Turn 14 with the help of DRS.

Lap 48

Rosberg has the gap down to 4.4s. Raikkonen is another 0.3s off Vettel now. Maybe his charge is over.

Lap 49

With the top 10 now holding station, we are watching Maldonado attack and pass Button again for 13th into Turn 14.

Button now tries to pass into Turn 1 and they touch! Contact at high speed on the entry to Turn 1 as Button attempts to re-pass the Lotus. Damage to Button's front wing, Maldonado spins through 180 degrees and keeps going.

Lap 50

Alonso takes 13th place as a result of that collision. It looked very much like Button's mistake into Turn 1 there - very uncharacteristic.

Lap 51

Maldonado's day is just getting worse and worse as he has a rear brake failure. It looks like he did a cruise through the pit lane, for a minute I thought he may have given himself a drive through penalty...

Back at the front Hamilton has the gap increasing to 5.4s. Raikkonen has his gap to Vettel down to 2.2s

Lap 52

This time Maldonado comes into the pits and retires his Lotus. The end to a very disappointing afternoon, that without the spins and brake problems should have ended in the points.

Raikkonen takes abother two tenths out of Vettel and they now look visibly much closer on track.

Lap 53

Raikkonen gets the gap down to 1.6s now despite some problems getting past Perez.

Rosberg is now 7.3s off Hamilton, so appears to have handed the victory two his team-mate. Hamilton is now 19.2s clear of Vettel, which is a fair representation of the advantage Mercedes has held here.

Lap 54

Verstappen has stopped on the pit straight with what looks like an engine problem.

Safety car deployed to to get rid of that stricken Toro Rosso. Listening to the on board it sounded like the Renault V6 fully lunched itself before locking up the transmission and grinding to a halt. A shame for Verstappen, who was eighth after a strong afternoon.

Lap 55

Hamilton starts the penultimate lap. Ferrari are in the pits - very odd. Maybe a puncture for one of the cars...

Both Ferraris stayed out, so panic over for the Scuderia.

Some trouble moving the Toro Rosso as the rear wheels were locked. It's smoking pretty bad and now they have crashed it into the gap in the pit wall. What a farce

Lap 56

Crunch, snap, bang... The Toro Rosso is still being manhandled through the gap in the pit wall.

The leaders start the final lap behind the safety car, it looks like we will finish with three Mercedes at the front of the pack.

I tell a lie, the safety car is coming in this lap. No overtaking so the order you see now is how the cars will finish the Chinese Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton crosses the line to take his second win of the season ahead of Rosberg, Vettel, Raikkonen, Massa, Bottas, Grosjean, Nasr, Ricciardo and Ericsson.

Perez and Alonso finish just outside the points. Button, Sainz, Stevens and Merhi complete the finishing order. Good to see two McLarens and two Manors make the chequered flag.

Victory for Mercedes as was predicted ahead of the weekend, but it was an interesting race in the middle stint. We saw Hamilton back Rosberg into Vettel and that might just create a bit of friction in the Mercedes camp in the week ahead of the next race in Bahrain.

Make sure you join us in Bahrain for more F1 action next week. We'll also have all of the reaction from today's race both in the Mercedes camp in reaction to Hamilton and the Ferrari camp in reaction to the return to being the best of the rest.