Lewis Hamilton delivered an impressive performance during the 19-lap sprint race in Shanghai, in a tabloid format. The seven-time world champion showed his skills on the track, but ended up behind the dominant competitor. Nevertheless, Hamilton described his second place in the sprint race in Shanghai as one of the best in recent times in Formula 1. The British driver expressed satisfaction with his performance in the lackluster W15 car.
Hamilton also managed to overtake the McLaren driver, who started in pole position, during the first lap. Reflecting on his race, Hamilton stated: “This is the best result I’ve had in a while. I couldn’t fight against the Red Bull cars, but we made progress and I learned a lot with the car in this stage, which is promising for tomorrow.”
The 39-year-old driver acknowledged the progress made by Mercedes since their arrival in Shanghai, but admitted that the Red Bull team is currently superior. In the sprint race of the Chinese GP, Red Bull secured a victory with a lead of over 13 seconds. While Hamilton praised his team’s efforts with the W15 car, he doubted their ability to challenge the top teams in the upcoming qualifying session. Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren have shown a better one-lap pace than Mercedes so far.
Hamilton expressed hope that changes to the car would lead to a stronger performance in qualifying. He stated: “We’re still not as fast on a single lap – I don’t expect us to be fighting for the front row, but we’ll make some changes in these three hours to try to have a better qualifying session.”
Currently, Mercedes holds the position of the fourth fastest team on the 2024 grid, far from its previous dominance in the turbo hybrid era. However, rain is expected to affect the next session, which could benefit Hamilton and his team in securing favorable starting positions for tomorrow’s race.
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