Lewis Hamilton said “I forgot what it felt like to be up ahead” after leading for the first half of the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix Sprint, but admitted that context had a huge part to play in his second-place finish.
Hamilton has endured his worst start to an F1 season, with just 10 points scored across the first four rounds as Mercedes has suffered numerous correlation issues with its W15 challenger.
Still, when the wet weather intervened in Sprint Qualifying on Friday, Hamilton’s natural ability shone through, earning him a front-row start on Saturday.
The Mercedes driver was able to muscle past McLaren’s Lando Norris at the start and led until lap nine of 19 before Red Bull’s Mac Verstappen came through and romped away to a 13s victory, but Hamilton still saw the positives in taking the runner-up spot.
“I forgot what it felt like to be up ahead and it felt good for the short while that I had it, but I was grateful for the moment,” Hamilton said.
“Yeah, really fortunate obviously with the rain yesterday to have been able to capitalize on that.
“I think our out-and-out true pace was not strong enough to qualify as high as that but I made the most of it.
“[I had a] great start and then just managed to hold off Fernando [Alonso] for a while and build a bit of a gap.
“Honestly I found out a lot about the car today, not that it’s telling us how to fix it, but at least give us lots of direction and things we need to improve.
“Fortunately, we can make a few changes in the next couple of hours, so I will try and improve the car for qualifying today.”
Hamilton admitted that Mercedes is struggling in the low and medium speed corners around the Shanghai International Circuit, admitting that whilst Red Bull is “in a different league’ in that regard, Alonso “was also killing me in the low speed.”
He added: “I think that’s probably the characteristics of the car that we need to actually work on through the rest of the year.”
Speaking further on Mercedes’ struggles in 2024, Hamilton assessed that today’s P2 result in the Sprint was “90% due to the scenario of the rain yesterday.”
Looking ahead, Hamilton’s goal is to ensure he gets another top-10 qualifying appearance.
“We’re currently not top five qualifiers and so just getting to Q3 would be important today,” he said.
“Fortunately you know I’ve got extra tyres so if I can utilize that today I’ll try and maximize it.”
