Lewis Hamilton has won his first race for Ferrari, securing yesterday’s Sprint victory from pole position following an early duel with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton got a great start to take the lead into turn one and managed the gap to Verstappen until the Dutchman was passed for second on lap 15 by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri into the back straight’s hairpin.
Ferrari’s new recruit stretched his legs all the way to his maiden Sprint win, with the Brit coming home almost 6.9 seconds ahead of Piastri for eight points (nine overall) and a three-place jump to seventh in the standings.
Photo: AFP
“The last, like, five laps or something I was in a really pretty comfortable position. It’s hard to put into words what it feels like,” Hamilton said. “Obviously it’s a Sprint race, is not the main race, but even just think to get that — it’s just a good stepping stone to where I’m working towards.”
Hamilton is still enjoying every new moment with the Scuderia, despite having secured a record-equaling seven titles and 104 wins, with the Chinese Sprint — and his romp to the win — all about managing the tire wear.
“I got in the car extra early because I just wanted to be present and enjoy it, because I hadn’t been there for a while,” he said. I got a “good start and challenging race. It is generally really close between all of us, but the tire degradation today was pretty huge I think for everybody, so I think for me it was just try to manage that early on.”
Photo: AFP
Hamilton arrived in Shanghai after a disappointing season-opening race last weekend in Australia, where he finished 10th in his debut race for Ferrari.
Piastri was happy to jump Verstappen and take second, but disappointed to not be the one to take the win from pole position — given McLaren’s pace advantage.
It was “tough,” Piastri said. It was “probably one of the more difficult ones in terms of tire degradation, so I knew I had to try and be patient.”
Verstappen was happy to finish in the top three, with the reigning world champion picking up seven points to take his total haul to 24 — two behind the leader, McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had a scrappy race to finish eighth.
“Midway, [I] really started to feel that the deg[radation] was kicking in,” Verstappen said. “It just seemed a little bit more aggressive for us than maybe the cars around us, but I think that just comes from maybe not having the base pace, you try to hang in there, and you naturally just destroy your tires a bit more.”
“To be in the top-three I think is still a good result for us. And maybe we started a bit more ahead than I think we should have anyway so pretty pleased.”
Piastri later yesterday stormed to his first-ever pole position ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell.
The second row for today’s main race was filled by Norris and Verstappen.
Hamilton is to start in fifth.
Additional reporting by AFP
Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Australian teenager Maya Joint on Tuesday eased into the Eastbourne Open quarter-finals in England as Hsieh prepares for the Wimbledon Championships next week. Four-time Wimbledon women’s doubles champion Hsieh and 19-year-old Joint fired two aces and converted five of eight break points to defeat Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Poland’s Katarzyna Piter 6-3, 6-3 in 58 minutes on the grass court. Hsieh and Joint are today to face fourth seeds Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who advanced on Monday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Quinn Gleason of the US and
BEAT THE HEAT: A brutal heat wave in the US has made cooling breaks standard. Dortmund’s coach said the weather could shape the destiny of the tournament Chelsea on Tuesday beat Esperance of Tunisia 3-0 to set up a FIFA Club World Cup last-16 tie against SL Benfica, who earlier defeated Bayern Munich 1-0, as furnace-link heat and the threat of thunder and lightning wreak havoc at the tournament. Elsewhere, minnows Auckland City claimed a memorable draw against Boca Juniors, while Los Angeles bowed out of the tournament with a stalemate against Flamengo. In Charlotte, Andreas Schjelderup scored the only goal for Benfica in their Group C clash with Bayern in front of 33,287 fans, finishing first-time from a cutback by his fellow Norwegian Fredrik Aursnes in the 13th
REUNION: Former Barcelona players Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Miami coach Javier Mascherano are to face their former coach Luis Enrique Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi faces a tantalizing reunion with former club Paris Saint-Germain in the FIFA Club World Cup last 16 after both sides on Monday progressed to the knockout phase. Miami drew 2-2 with Palmeiras to go through second in Group A, after the Brazilian side fought back from two goals down to seal top spot. They now face an all-Brazil clash against Botafogo, who lost 1-0 to Atletico Madrid, but progressed from Group B in second at the expense of the Spaniards. Champions of Europe PSG won the group with a 2-0 victory over Seattle Sounders, paving the
The New Taipei Kings claimed the inaugural Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) championship on Sunday, defeating the Kaohsiung FamilyMart Aquas 108-89 in the final. Playing at home, the Kings pulled ahead with Jeremy Lin’s (林書豪) clutch three-pointers, securing their victory over the Aquas in the TPBL final. The Kings came out strong in the first quarter, dominating to build a 35-18 lead. By halftime, they had stretched their advantage to 61-38. In the third quarter, the Aquas narrowed the deficit to 12 points, but Lin stepped up, sinking several tough three- pointers to extend the lead. In the final quarter, the Kings pushed the
RSS