Nico Rosberg of Mercedes captured the Chinese Grand Prix with ease on Sunday to extend his perfect start to the Formula One season and become just the fourth driver in history to win six straight races.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who collided with teammate Kimi Raikkonen at the first corner, finished second, 37.7 seconds behind Rosberg, while Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat used an aggressive race strategy to take third - only the second podium of the 21-year-old's career.

Rosberg started on pole position and led nearly the entire race by a wide margin to win his third race to start this season and his sixth consecutive dating back to last year.

Every driver who has started an F1 season with three straight wins went on to win the title that year.

"It was a great weekend here for me in China. It's a special place for me - first pole, first win here (in 2012)," Rosberg said. "I was just pushing to try to get the best gap possible. I'm glad that it worked out so well."

Vettel recovered nicely from the first corner setback and worked his way through the field to claim a creditable second.

"Disappointed that I made contact in lap one. Lucky that the car was still intact," Vettel said. "We had a different strategy from most people with the super-soft tire, which helped me to clear the traffic and make progress. It was good fun - a lot of cars. I didn't count but it felt like a lot."

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo led the race initially after getting off the line better than Rosberg, but he suffered a puncture while leading on lap three and finished fourth. Raikkonen was fifth after having been knocked to the back of the field by the first-corner accident.

With Rosberg's victory never really in doubt, most of the action took place behind him as Lewis Hamilton moved his way up through the field after starting on the back row and battled with Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Williams driver Felipe Massa late in the race.

Massa held off Hamilton to take sixth place, while the reigning world champion had to settle for seventh.

Hamilton had been forced to start in the back row after an engine problem on Saturday prevented him from setting a time in qualifying, and was also a victim of the first-corner chaos. He lost his front wing, triggering the first of an extraordinary six pit stops for the reigning F1 champion.

The trouble at the first bend came when Kvyat made an aggressive pass on the inside of Vettel, causing the German to swerve outwards to avoid contact and colliding with Raikkonen on his outside.

An angry Vettel fumed on his radio, "Kvyat's attack was suicidal, there was no way he could have made the corner with that speed."

When Raikkonen returned to the track, Sauber's Felipe Nasr swerved to avoid him and collided with Hamilton, dislodging the front wing of his Mercedes, which briefly got trapped beneath his car.