Ferrari's British driver Lewis Hamilton. AFP
SHANGHAI: Lewis Hamilton has won his first race for Ferrari, securing Saturday’s Sprint victory from pole position following an early duel with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen at the Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Hamilton got a great start to take the lead into turn one, and managed the gap to Verstappen, until the Dutchman was passed for second on lap 15 by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri into the back straight’s hairpin at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Ferrari’s new recruit was then able to stretch his legs all the way to his maiden Sprint win, with the Brit coming home almost 6.9 seconds ahead of Piastri - for eight points (nine overall) and a three-place jump to seventh in the standings.
"The last like five laps or something I was in a really pretty comfortable position. It’s hard to put into words what it feels like,” Hamilton said.
"Obviously it’s a Sprint race, is not the main race, but even just think to get that - it’s just a good stepping stone to where I’m working towards.”
Hamilton is still enjoying every new moment with the Scuderia, despite having secured a record-equaling seven titles and 104 wins, with the Chinese Sprint - and his romp to the win - all about managing the tire wear.
"I got in the car extra early because I just wanted to be present and enjoy it, because I hadn’t been there for a while,” he said.
"(I got a) good start and challenging race. It is generally really close between all of us. But the tire degradation today was pretty huge I think for everybody, so I think for me it was just try to manage that early on.”
Hamilton arrived in Shanghai after a disappointing season-opening race last weekend in Australia, where he finished 10th in his debut race for Ferrari.
Piastri was happy to jump Verstappen and take second, but disappointed to not be the one to take the win from pole position - given McLaren’s pace advantage.
"(It was) Tough,” Piastri said. "(It was) probably one of the more difficult ones in terms of tire degradation, so I knew I had to try and be patient.”
The pressure is now on McLaren to recover in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying to what it hopes is its rightful place at the front of the grid.
"The difference between qualifying and the race, in terms of what you want from the car and what the tires need, seems to be quite big,” Piastri said.
"I think the pace we had in the car yesterday was good. I think we just in hindsight would have done a few things a bit differently in qualifying. But I think the pace is there and there’s plenty of conference going this afternoon.”
Verstappen was again happy to finish in the top three, with the reigning World Champion picking up seven points to take his total haul to 24 - two behind leader, McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had a scrappy race to finish eighth.
"Midway, (I) really started to feel that the deg(radation) was kicking in," Verstappen said. "It just seemed a little bit more aggressive for us than maybe the cars around us. But I think that just comes from maybe not having the base pace, you try to hang in there, and you naturally just destroy your tires a bit more.
"To be in the top-three I think is still a good result for us. And maybe we started a bit more ahead than I think we should have anyway so pretty pleased.”
Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris finished eighth, far from the recovery drive he needed to have. The Brit started sixth, but went wide at the turn six hairpin, lost places, and only got past Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in the closing laps. - AP
