Hamilton’s podium in Shanghai
The Chinese Grand Prix it was the first of six weekends this season to feature the format of Sprint racewhich ended with a particularly positive result for Lewis Hamilton. Immediately behind the winner Max Verstappen, the seven-time world champion has in fact won the 2nd placethe same one obtained previously in Sprint qualifying and which allowed him to start from the front row for the time since the last Hungarian GP.
The precedents on the podium
Having taken the lead after overtaking poleman Lando Norris, Hamilton then lost the lead to the reigning world champion, but held second place steadily until the finish line. A result that, in the individual Sprint races, the future Ferrari driver had lacked since British GP 2021and ever since the Mexican GP last year.
All Allison’s honesty
In addition, 2nd place in the Shanghai Sprint also equates to the team’s first podium of the season Mercedes. Given the unsatisfactory results of the Brackley manufacturer so far, the question arises almost spontaneously: would Mercedes have expected a similar outcome? The answer was provided by the Technical Director of the Anglo-German team, James Allisonand with some honesty: “If I’m honest, no, I didn’t expect us to stay second because I don’t think the car is fast enough to deserve it right now – He admitted – the rain was a complicated thing for everyone in the sprint qualifying. I think that we have to take our hats off to Lewis for reacting in incredibly difficult circumstances in those sprint qualifyingwhere cars went off the track left, right and centre.”
The foundations of 2nd place
Taking the lead straight into Turn 1 after overtaking Norris, Hamilton was then overtaken by Verstappen, but behind the Englishman Alonso he was unable to keep up with the pace of the cars behind him, finding himself in third position and at the head of a DRS train. A situation which, according to Allison, allowed Hamilton to maintain his second position: “Lewis hit the target very clearly and deserved 2nd place on the grid – he continued – but in the dry conditions in the sprint race I felt we would probably be swallowed up by the two Red Bulls, and others too, because we have a difference in pace compared to the leading cars right now, and there’s no reason to deny it. However, I think things went a little wrong, with the way Norris lost pace, made a bad start and ended up back. With Fernando leading the fastest cars It took them a little while to get over it, and that gave us some breathing room. I don’t want to downplay the result because I think it was a very, very well controlled drive from Lewis which got the absolute maximum out of the car and it was a welcome tonic for all of us. You put the car in a decent position on the grid and then take it to the checkered flag in that same position. I think the circumstances of the race helped us a little bit, with Fernando who acted as a buffer between us and the fastest riders“.
