Mercedes will be looking to reassert their Formula One dominance at the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend after the team received the loudest of wake-up calls in Malaysia by Sebastian Vettel's revitalised Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two ahead of Nico Rosberg in the season opener in Melbourne last month, the pair enjoying a Sunday stroll around Albert Park that left the rest of the field trailing in their wake and fans fearing the worst.
Another procession was expected in Malaysia but Vettel and Ferrari had other ideas with both winning a race for the first time since 2013, thanks to a car that was much kinder on the tyres in the sweltering heat and a tactical masterclass from race engineers.
Mercedes are now fully aware they have a real title fight on their hands from a team that stumbled from one crisis to another in a winless 2014 campaign, but the German outfit will be happy to race at a circuit that suits the car with track temperatures far less demanding on the Pirelli tyres.
"We left Malaysia with plenty to think about. It may have been a good result for the sport... but for us, it was a wake-up call," Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff said.
"Our opposition has raised its game and we must now raise ours even further. As we have said since Melbourne, we expect a season-long battle for both world championships and we must maximise every opportunity," he added. "China is the next chance to do that... a circuit which has been a good hunting ground for the team."
Hamilton beat Rosberg to the chequered flag in Shanghai a year ago and while recent trends make Mercedes favourites at the 5.451 km Hermann Tilke-designed circuit, Ferrari won the race in 2013 and will be keen to prevent the Briton from registering a record-extending fourth win in China.
Fernando Alonso was another driver given a rude awakening in Malaysia and while the Spaniard put a brave face on an early withdrawal on his seasonal debut for McLaren after missing Melbourne due to concussion, the sight of his old employers storming to victory must have left a bittersweet taste.
Undeterred and insisting he was happy to rejoin a team with whom he spent one unhappy season in 2007, Alonso firmly believes the car is making rapid improvements since a disastrous season-opener and double retirement last time out.
"The steps we took between Australia and Malaysia were extremely impressive," the double world champion said. "That sort of progress really gives the whole team belief and confidence in the path we're taking, so I hope we can keep moving forwards every time we take to the track."
Williams and Red Bull will also be hoping for a more positive weekend after two races that starkly exposed their early-season limitations.
The former had been expected to battle with Ferrari for second place but have been well beaten by Vettel in Australia and Malaysia, while Red Bull have become bogged down in a public spat with engine suppliers Renault and were unable to back up an impressive qualifying session in Malaysia during the race.
Chinese Grand Prix Stats & Facts
- Lap distance: 5.451km. Total distance: 305.066km (56 laps)
- Race lap record: Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari one minute 32.238 seconds (2004)
- 2014 pole: Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes
- 2014 winner: Hamilton
- Start time: 0600 GMT/1400 local
- Tyres: Medium (white), soft (yellow)
- Sebastian Vettel's victory for Ferrari in Malaysia (race two of 19) was the German's first for the Italian team and their first since 2013.
- Vettel is the 38th driver to win for Ferrari since the championship started in 1950, and the third German after Michael Schumacher and Wolfgang von Trips.
- The four times world champion now has 40 career wins, Hamilton 34, Fernando Alonso 32, Kimi Raikkonen 20 and Jenson Button 15.
- One more win would put Vettel third overall and level with the late Brazilian triple world champion Ayrton Senna in the all-time lists.
- Malaysia ended Mercedes's run of eight successive race wins. It was the first time since 2013 that a team other than Mercedes or Red Bull had won.
- Ferrari have won 222 races, McLaren 182, Williams 114 and Red Bull 50. Mercedes have won 30.
- McLaren have not won for 40 races, a run that dates back to Brazil 2012. They went 48 races without a win from 1993-97.
- Mercedes have now been on pole for the last 13 races. The record for successive poles is 24 (Williams 1992/93).
- Mercedes and Williams were the only teams to start on pole last year.
- Ferrari's last pole was in Germany with Alonso in 2012.
- Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen, aged 17 years five months and 27 days, became the youngest driver to score points in Formula One by finishing seventh at Sepang. The previous record was held by Russian Daniil Kvyat, who was 19 when he scored in Australia last year.
- Verstappen's team mate Carlos Sainz also finished in the points in Malaysia, becoming only the fifth driver in the last 10 years to score points in his first two races.
- The race made its debut on the calendar in 2004 and six of the 11 Chinese Grands Prix have been won from pole.
- No driver has ever won in China two years in a row. Hamilton is the most successful there with three wins (2008, 2011, 2014) while Alonso has two (2005, 2013).
- Ferrari have won four times, McLaren three.
- Button and Alonso are the only drivers to have finished every Chinese Grand Prix. Only four times has the winner in China gone on to take the title that year.
- Button (in 2010) is the only driver to have won in China while reigning world champion.
- The 1.17km back straight is the longest on the current Formula One calendar. Hamilton won last year with a two-stop strategy.
- Rosberg took his first F1 pole and win in China in 2012. The circuit also saw Red Bull's first F1 win in 2009.
- Malaysia was Hamilton's 150th grand prix start.
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