Hamilton: a worrying 7th place for the championship
Lewis Hamilton, who started last in the race and was caught out at the first corner, experienced a race he hadn't expected to be so eventful. At the wheel of a Mercedes weakened by traffic, the Englishman only finished seventh, leaving Nico Rosberg still in the hunt for the world championship.
Starting from the last position at the Shanghai Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton experienced a challenging race from start to finish. Clipped from the beginning by a Sauber, the English driver saw his car lose aerodynamic performance and subsequently struggled more than expected to climb back through the field, as evidenced by his inability to overtake Felipe Massa’s Williams at the end of the race.
The triple world champion, ultimately 7th and even threatened by Max Verstappen in the last meters, did not have a smile at the finish: « It was really a difficult race. I got off to a good start, which is never easy when you have a lot of cars in front of you. I tried to avoid the other cars but a Sauber hit me and broke my wing. After this collision, I fought and fought again but every time I came back I had to change tires [Hamilton stopped five times, editor’s note]. The car wasn’t at its best today for managing them well, I think. The suspension might have been damaged or another aerodynamic part because of the accident on the 1st lap, I don’t know. In any case, it didn’t seem very stiff today ! »
While Lewis Hamilton was stuck in traffic, his teammate Nico Rosberg was stringing together the fastest laps, leading alone. The German now has a 36-point lead over Hamilton in the championship, which is a more than comfortable cushion. However, the Englishman is not panicking yet: « It’s racing, and unfortunately, I didn’t finish as well as possible. 7th place is better than nothing. Congratulations to Nico on his victory. For now, I don’t have much perspective on the race. I’ll need to review it calmly. Fortunately, it’s quite easy to overtake on this circuit » he concluded.
