Lewis Hamilton has won the historic 1000th FIA Formula 1 World Championship race as Mercedes continued to their dominant start to the season to claim a one-two in the Chinese Grand Prix.

But it was also a rewarding day for CAMS Ambassador, Daniel Ricciardo. The Aussie claimed his first points for the season, finishing the race in seventh place after holding off early challenges from Sergio Perez and Kimi Raikkonen.

It was a largely uneventful race after Hamilton overtook his teammate Valtteri Bottas off the line and found himself leading the pack. 

The five-time world champion then comfortably led the whole race to finish more than six seconds ahead of Bottas. 

Rounding out the podium was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who had battles with Max Verstappen and teammate Charles Leclerc during the race. Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly ended the day in sixth and recorded the fastest lap, claiming the newly introduced bonus point. 

Mercedes’ brilliant start to 2019 made them the first team to get consecutive one-two finishes in the opening three Formula 1 races since Williams in 1992 and Hamilton was ecstatic. 

“It’s not been the most straight forward of weekends but what a fantastic result for the team and everyone who worked so hard,” Hamilton said post-race.

“Our strategy has been really on point for the first three races and we need to keep it up because you can see it’s still very close between us all. I really don’t know how the next race is going to turn out but I am super excited.