A tough but fair battle
“I think there was contact, but just a little kiss, it was a great battle”. This is how Lewis Hamilton commented on the continuous exchanges of position with Charles Leclerc, a tug-of-war ultimately won by the seven-time world champion who yesterday achieved his first career podium as a Ferrari driver in the Chinese Grand Prix, one of the English driver’s favorite tracks.
Read more Antonelli-Hamilton banter in the press conference: “When you won your first race I was one year old”
Having an exclusive front-row seat for the derby between the SF-26s was George Russell, who in addition to the spectacle kindly offered by the two Scuderia Maranello drivers, saw his garage teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli pull further and further away, taking advantage of the battle raging for second position.
“I was just waiting for an accident between the two Ferraris, but for some reason it didn’t happen, I don’t know how they managed to avoid it – said the Mercedes driver in the press conference at the end of the race – it was one of the most aggressive races I have witnessed and participated in. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t seen Antonelli slowly pulling away, that was annoying. Overtaking the Ferraris was not easy.”
Read more Hamilton: “It took me much longer than I thought to get this podium”
Once he put the Ferraris behind him, Russell was no longer able to trouble Antonelli. The Mercedes cars were in difficulty on two occasions: at the start and when the race restarted after the Safety Car. The W17s struggled to get the hard compound tires up to temperature.
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