Despite being criticised for his driving in the Malaysian Grand prix, Lewis Hamilton was left 'struggling for words' over his sensational victory
for McLaren in Shanghai this weekend. With a shaky start minutes ahead of the Grand Prix, Hamilton was probably left wondering whether he would even be able to race when a fuel leak struck his MP4-26 Mercedes. The problem was soon rectified when his team of mechanics jumped into action and Hamilton made it out of the pit-lane in time for the race.
Just before we went out we started the engine no problem, but clearly it was flooded. To dismantle a car, drain all that fuel out and make sure it wasn't flooded and get out there with seconds to spare was not the greatest way to start our afternoon, but the boys did a great job.
Hamilton made a superb start overtaking Vettel, the 26 year old said
it's rare to have battles like the ones we saw, you really had to think about the situation, and I loved that challenge, but having to overtake people made things so much sweeter
As the race continued it became the battle of two versus three, Hamilton's three-stop strategy proved successful and a better option than Vettell's two stops, which failed to pay off, allowing him to pass the pole-sitter in the final laps.
I think the strategy we came up with going into qualifying definitely helped. My new option tyres seemed to last a little bit longer than the guys in front.
...Speaking of pit stops, Button mistake of stopping at the Red Bull pit instead of his own, pretty stupid if you ask me!
How did the rest do?
Other highlights for me included a fantastic performance by Webber to finish 3rd from 18th, the Australian Red Bull driver insisting he was 'just doing what I'm paid to do' It was also good to see that Massa was the better Ferrari driver from the start, outdriving Alonso so comprehensively, I hope he keeps it up! I have to say, it was one of the most entertaining races I have seen in a long time and I hope we can see more like this, many congratulations to Mclaren and Hamilton and hope we can do the same again for the Turkish Grand Prix in 3 weeks time!
- 1. L Hamilton
- 2. S Vettel
- 3. M Webber
- 4. J Button
- 5. N Rosberg
- 6. F Massa
- 7. F Alonso
- 8. M Schumacher
- 9. V Petrov
- 10. K Kobayashi