Lewis Hamilton looks for third straight win at Chinese Grand Prix

By
Jonathan McEvoy

21:30 GMT, 18 April 2014


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21:30 GMT, 18 April 2014

The straight-brim baseball cap was an unusual sight on BA flight 169, London Heathrow to Shanghai.

The head inside the millinery belonged to Lewis Hamilton, who had ditched his private jet to breathe the same air- conditioning as the rest of us.

Most surprising about seeing Hamilton on board was the timing. A flight leaving on Wednesday and arriving on Thursday is mighty late when you arrange your life around driving a car at 200mph every week or two, especially when the time difference is seven hours.

On track: Lewis Hamilton was fastest in the second practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix

On track: Lewis Hamilton was fastest in the second practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix

Life in the fast lane: Hamilton carried over his good form from Malaysia and Bahrain to the Chinese Grand Prix

Life in the fast lane: Hamilton carried over his good form from Malaysia and Bahrain to the Chinese Grand Prix

Head boy: Hamilton, trails Nico Rosberg by 11 points in the championship, but was fastest on Friday

Head boy: Hamilton, trails Nico Rosberg by 11 points in the championship, but was fastest on Friday

So what sort of half-baked,
slack-jawed approach was our great British hope for the Formula One
world title adopting towards Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix? A meticulous
one, in fact.

After arriving
in awful smog that grabs you by the throat if you are exposed to a
mouthful of the toxic stuff, he said: ‘I’ve been on Chinese time since
Monday night back in Britain.

‘The
first night I went to bed at 9,  then 8, then 7, so it’s not been that
easy. You want to go for dinner with a friend and then it gets put off.
You want to walk the dog. Luckily the dogs will sleep whenever.

‘I do this sort of thing often. I slept nine hours on the plane.’ Lucky him.

The
challenge facing Hamilton here is to beat his Mercedes team-mate Nico
Rosberg because, unless technical gremlins intervene, their cars will be
in another street from the rest of the field here.

That point was made in Friday
practice when Hamilton set the fastest time, despite missing the first
25 minutes of the first session with a suspension problem. He complained
about understeer early on but was comfortably ahead of his peers.

Welcome along: Ferrari's new team principal, Marco Mattiacci arrives at the Shaghai paddock on Friday

Welcome along: Ferrari’s new team principal, Marco Mattiacci arrives at the Shaghai paddock on Friday

On track: Fernando Alonso was fastest in the morning before finishing behind only Hamilton later on Friday

On track: Fernando Alonso was fastest in the morning before finishing behind only Hamilton later on Friday

Fernando
Alonso was second fastest in front of Ferrari’s new team principal
Marco Mattiacci, who walked around with a clipboard and preposterously
wore sunglasses despite the murky conditions. Rosberg was next on the
timesheets.

Mattiacci, who
was head of Ferrari North America, revealed that he thought he was being
hoaxed when Luca di Montezemolo, the president, phoned him to tell him
he was being brought in from what might pejoratively be called car sales
to run the Scuderia. He was told to get on a flight for Maranello
straight away and that made him realise what was happening.

Back
to Hamilton, who is in a position he has never been in before: chasing a
third successive grand prix victory, having won in Malaysia and
brilliantly in a captivating race in Bahrain a fortnight ago. But,
amazingly, even another triumph would leave him four points behind
Rosberg if the German were to follow him home in second place.

‘I
don’t think three in a row is that special,’ said Hamilton. ‘Three
championships is. We always talk about records but it doesn’t appeal to
me. I’m here to win and I’m hungry after the last race and eager to
improve on certain areas.

Raring to go: Daniel Ricciardo was fourth quickest during the second practice session in Shanghai

Raring to go: Daniel Ricciardo was fourth quickest during the second practice session in Shanghai

Short of pace: Sebastian Vettel

Short of pace: Sebastian Vettel

‘It’s
just feeding that hunger and keeping it through the whole year. In the
last race it looked like I positioned my car perfectly the whole time
but Nico got the jump on me here and there, so I’ve got to look at how
that came about.

‘I’ve also got to look at the set-up and make sure I don’t allow myself to go the wrong route again.’

Hamilton’s
preparations for China saw him return to Britain to visit, among
others, his mother Carmen, who is affectionately known as Brenda. He
even watched the Bahrain race back with her.

Of
Mercedes’ advantage, which is starting to resemble Red Bull’s recent
domination, he said: ‘You can’t see it so much in the beginning of the
race but the last part. The first lap after the safety car we were four
seconds ahead. That was the biggest shock, to see us pulling away. It
looks unreal.

‘It feels
awesome in the car. But I’ve got Nico in the same car so I’ve still got a
huge battle on my hands, making sure I’m on top of all the data and all
the different settings and trying to do a better job.’

There
was a note of congratulation from Ross Brawn, the former Mercedes boss,
after the team arrived back from Bahrain. He has left a fine team
behind.

‘We didn’t know how
good this car would be because we didn’t know what Ferrari were doing,
what McLaren were doing,’ said Hamilton.

‘In the first test it felt terrible, because we didn’t get the tyres in the working range.

‘And then we went to Melbourne for the first race and everything was pretty good.

‘Maybe
in 2008 we started with the fastest car at McLaren but generally we
wouldn’t. We would be catching up. We had a  massive capacity to do
that.

‘I could see at that
time that Mercedes didn’t have the strength to keep going through the
whole year. They would be strong but then not improve. But I’ve seen
from last year how things have developed here.’


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