Hamilton shuts down ‘yapping critics’ with China F1 sprint win

Lewis Hamilton will ‘not get ahead of himself’ after a dominant sprint win at Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix, but said the result shut down early critics after a tough Melbourne weekend with Ferrari.

Hamilton recorded his first sprint pole for Ferrari by narrowly edging out world champion Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, and made a strong getaway on Saturday morning to fend off Verstappen into Shanghai’s winding Turn 1.

The Ferrari driver appeared to come under early pressure from Verstappen behind, but used the clear air to his advantage as he managed to keep front tyre graining to a minimum while others struggled.

As Red Bull feared, Verstappen started suffering from fading front tyres, and instead of attacking Hamilton the Dutchman came under pressure from Piastri himself, being passed for second with four laps to go.

That fight allowed Hamilton to go over six seconds clear for a dominant first sprint win with Ferrari on his second weekend driving for the Scuderia, which unleashed a strong response from the seven-time world champion.

“In Melbourne, I really didn’t feel comfortable in the car. From lap one here this weekend, I was really feeling on it,” Hamilton said, as numerous fans unfurled banners carrying his logo in the grandstands.

“We’ve done great job with the engineers and the mechanics to really fine tune the car, and it felt great. Today I got a good start, and then there was so much grip on this new tarmac that it’s really hard to look after these tyres, but I think everyone was struggling the same.”

Hamilton’s Shanghai weekend has been a night and day difference compared to a difficult debut in Australia, but the 40-year-old felt people were too quick to criticise him as he came up to speed with the Scuderia.

“I really do feel a lot of people underestimated the steep climb it is to get into a new team, to become acclimatised within a team, understanding and communication, all sorts of things,” he added.

“The amount of critics and people I’ve heard yapping along the way just clearly not understanding, maybe because they never had the experience or they’re just unaware. And so it felt great to come here and feel more comfortable in the car.”

But the seven-time world champion was much more measured in his response than after grabbing an emotional sprint pole yesterday, in the knowledge that qualifying for the main grand prix is mere hours away. “Rome wasn’t building one day, one step at a time,” he said. “We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. We cannot.

“We’ve got to be diligent and just remain focused and most importantly, stay calm, because these moments get us all excited, but we’ll be back at our desks after this and focused on qualifying this afternoon. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, so we’ve just got to take our time.”