Hamilton breaks Vettel dominance with thrilling victory in Shanghai

Published on Sunday 17 April 2011 17:46

Lewis Hamilton was left "absolutely overwhelmed" after ending his eight-month drought for a Formula One victory with a supreme performance in yesterday's action-packed Chinese Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver got the better of championship leader Sebastian Vettel after a race-long duel to record his 15th career win, and the first since August's Belgian Grand Prix.

Hamilton lined up third on the grid and battled past team-mate Jenson Button before overhauling pole-sitter Vettel for the lead with just four laps remaining. Ultimately it was as much a tactical victory as it was one of power and nerve, Hamilton's three stops to Vettel's two proving the way to go on the new Pirelli tyres.

"I'm absolutely overwhelmed. It feels like a long, long time since I was sitting here," said Hamilton, who is now second in the drivers' standings, 21 points behind Vettel who won the first two races of the season.

"I feel extremely grateful for all the hard work the guys put in. I'm looking forward to many, many more great races like this. Every inch of the race, every second, was incredibly enjoyable."

Hamilton suffered drama before the race when his car failed to start in the garage. He eventually made it out just 30 seconds before the pit lane closed, and he admitted it was touch and go for a while.

"The car just wouldn't start. We've had it not start several times in the past so I thought it was nothing, but when they kept trying it was becoming more and more of a concern for everyone. As I was driving to the light I was nervous that just as I got to it, it would go red."

The result saw Vettel denied a third win in a row in 2011, and a fifth dating back to last year, and the German admitted that he had perhaps gone the wrong way on strategy.

"I'm the only one with two stops (on the podium] so that's something to look into," he said.

"We also had a problem with KERS so it wasn't a trouble-free race. Once we decided to go two-stop, we had to be patient."

Vettel fluffed his lines at the start to allow Button ahead into the first corner, with Hamilton also forcing his way through.

The trio held station until just before the first round of pit stops, when things began to go awry for Button. Moments after Vettel had passed Hamilton for second, both he and Button pitted together, only for the McLaren driver to commit the baffling error of pulling up at the Red Bull garage.

"It was a surprise that Jenson came into my garage in front of me," Vettel continued. "Fortunately it had no effect and the guys kept their heads. We came out in the lead and tried hard to stay on two stops." But his bid to remain on the hard rubber all the way to the flag following his second stop on lap 31 fell just short of success. With Hamilton flying on his third set of option tyres, Vettel had no response and on lap 52 Hamilton pulled a brave move in turn seven and surged away to a 5.1 second advantage at the flag.

Away from the scrap for the lead, Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber was putting on a tremendous show of his own, charging through the pack from 18th place after a troubled qualifying and he snatched third from Button on the penultimate lap.

Bathgate's Paul Di Resta had a frustrating afternoon, coming home 11th after qualifying eighth, the Force India rookie once again getting the better of experienced team-mate Adrian Sutil. But the race proved a bridge too far for the 25-year-old who scored single points in each of the opening grand prix this season. Di Resta's afternoon ended with a moment of drama when he tangled with the Renault of Nick Heidfeld while battling for position late on.

Race stewards investigated the incident, but were happy to write it off as a racing incident requiring no punishment.

"Overall I am still very happy on how the weekend went considering we qualified into Q3 and came close to scoring points once again," Di Resta added.

"We came here with relatively strong performance and I think we have to be very thankful for that."