Lewis Hamilton upbeat after victory over Vettel in Shanghai
Lewis Hamilton put himself tied for the lead of the World Championship after bouncing back from his defeat by Sebastian Vettel in Melbourne to win in China.
Hamilton led from start to finish after a good early strategy move by Vettel was spoiled by a safety car that helped his rivals.
Hamilton admitted that it had been a challenging afternoon, especially when it came to choosing the right tires on the damp grid.
“Today was very, very tough for us all,” he said. “It was difficult to know. I went out on inters initially, on the laps to the grid, and then I tried the slick and it was impossible, and then we all started on inters and it was very, very hard, because there was a lot of dry patches everywhere, mostly dry except for a couple of corners that were wet.
“The start was fantastic, I’m so happy with the way starts are going to I need to keep that up! And then in the race, really just keeping my composure. Some really tricky conditions out there, particularly on the intermediate. Then, after that, once we’d done the pit stop with the Safety Car, the speed was very low and being very cold, our temperatures in our tires, they’re just not working, they’re so cold. So it was very, very easy to make mistakes, and I’m just grateful I didn’t.”
Hamilton admitted he was kept on his toes by Sebastian Vettel in the closing laps.
“And then at the end, the last 20-odd laps we were just pounding around as fast as we can, exchanging lap times and I think that’s what racing is all about. Perhaps in the future there will be times when we won’t have a Safety Car and there won’t be that six-second gap, it’ll be right on the tail either way.
“It is, as I said, very, very close and there were times when Sebastian put laps in and it was hard to even match the time. The last 10 or 12 laps he was doing a 35.6 and I was doing a 35.8 and it was very hard to get to where he was. Then there were other times in the race when I was quicker.”
Hamilton believes that hotter weather will favor Ferrari in Bahrain.
“Being that it’s often a warmer race, Ferrari is very good in hotter conditions. These were quite good conditions for me today with our car. When it steps up in temperature... So far in the first race it’s been shown as not the greatest for us just yet, so we’re just learning on the tires.
“Hopefully it will be better, it will definitely be better than it was in the Melbourne. I think they will be very, very quick in the next race, but there’s a lot of straights there as well and we’ve obviously got, I think, still the strongest power unit on the grid, so I think that will come into play, for sure.”
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