Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton took his 54th Formula One victory today - his fifth at the Shanghai International Circuit, his first of the 2017 season and the third Grand Chelem (pole position, race win, fastest lap, leading every racing lap) of his F1 career in what was a thrilling Chinese Grand Prix that entertained fans from start to finish.
After a rather lacklustre Australian Grand Prix, fans were treated to a thriller in China, even if most of it went on behind Hamilton, who never lost the lead throughout the entire event. Starting from pole position, the team's 75th from 150 starts, the triple world champion was never threatened, except maybe right near the end when the second placed Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel was putting in a sterling charge.
“My pole lap put me in a great position and then the start was just fantastic. I'm really happy with my starts right now so I want to keep that up! During the race I needed to keep my composure in some really tricky conditions out there,” Lewis said. “After the pit stop under the Safety Car the speed was low and the tyres were very cold, so it would have been very easy to make a mistake, so I'm just grateful that I didn't. In those final 20 laps Seb and I were just pounding around as fast as we could, exchanging fastest lap times, that's what racing is all about.”
“In the future there will be times when we don't have a Safety Car and we won't have that gap. I'm excited for that. It's very close and there were times when it was hard to match Sebastian. It has been a fantastic weekend and I'm so grateful for the effort the team has put in for us to be where we are today. It's very overwhelming when you have a weekend like this, because I'm just a single link in the chain and there are hundreds of people who are involved to put me up here on the top step. Big congratulations to everyone, especially those back home, I hope they're celebrating and feeling the spirit and the fight.”
After today's result, Lewis (43 points) holds a joint lead in the Drivers' Championship with Sebastian Vettel while Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (66 points) lead the Constructors' Championship by a single point from Ferrari (65 points) in P2.
