It’s the seventh time in his nine-season career that Hamilton has recorded a hat-trick of pole position, fastest lap and race win - the same number as his idol Ayrton Senna and the great Alberto Ascari. Only Michael Schumacher (22), Jim Clark (11), Juan Manuel Fangio (9), Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel (both 8) have scored more.

Having won at the same venue last year, Hamilton becomes the first driver in the race’s 12-year history to take back-to-back victories in Shanghai. It’s the tenth consecutive race that the reigning world champion has stood on the podium - the longest such run of his career. His previous best run came in his debut season in 2007 when he took nine rostrums in his first nine races.

What’s more, with Hamilton’s Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg coming second and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel third, the same three drivers have now been on the podium in each of the first three races - the first time that has happened in F1 racing history.

Hamilton now has 35 career victories to his name, but China was the first that he has clinched under neutralised safety car conditions. In fact, it was only the seventh time in history that the safety car has circulated on the final lap. The last time it happened was in Canada last year, but it also occurred in Brazil in 2012, in Monaco in 2010, in Italy in 2009, in Australia in 2009 and in Canada in 1999.

Mercedes were one of four teams to get both cars home in the points - the others being Ferrari, Williams and Sauber. The other points paying positions went to Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo in ninth - who was the only Renault-powered driver in the top ten - and Lotus’s Romain Grosjean in seventh. Not only were they the Enstone team’s first points of the year, they were also the Frenchman’s first points in 16 races, dating back to Monaco last season.

Grosjean’s team mate Pastor Maldonado fared less well however, retiring for the third race in a row this season. Will the Venezuelan finally see his first chequered flag of the year in Bahrain?