Shanghai surprise turns sour for Hamilton

China in his hands

The 40-year-old admitted to surprise when he claimed pole position for the first sprint race of 2025, then he served up a textbook drive for his maiden Ferrari win. How he held off Max Verstappen, then both controlled the race and preserved his tyres, was classic Hamilton. What a response to the deflation of Albert Park a few days earlier.

He then made a point of responding to his “yapping” critics, which perhaps gives a hint of the pressure even Hamilton cannot be immune to when he’s facing such unblinking scrutiny. “People just love to be negative at any opportunity,” he said of his critics. “Even with the smallest things, they'll just be negative about it. That's just the difficult time that we're living in.

“I see certain individuals – and again, I don't read the news, but I see bits here and there – see people that I've admired for years just talking out of turn. Clearly some of them really just making uneducated guesses of what’s going on, just a real lack of appreciation. 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 just unaware.”

Who could blame him for sniping back? Then again, he wasn’t getting carried away. As he acknowledged, this was only a sprint race, not a proper Grand Prix.

Contact with Leclerc

Hamilton could only qualify fifth for the Grand Prix itself, as the McLarens and George Russell vied for the top three, Verstappen’s Red Bull joining Norris on the second row. But Hamilton narrowly outpaced team-mate Charles Leclerc, who has been tipped to prove faster over one lap on most occasions in their first season as team-mates. The scene was set for what promised to be a much more positive race to banish memories of that lacklustre run to tenth in Melbourne.

But the positivity took a knock as early as the opening seconds, while the leaders jostled through the almost full-circle Turn 1. Sticking to a traditional racing line, Hamilton’s SF-25 cut in for the final part of the right-hander in preparation for the following left, only for Leclerc – on a tighter trajectory – to bounce off a kerb and clip his right-rear tyre.

Hamilton was lucky to avoid a puncture as the contact flicked Leclerc’s left-front wing endplate clean off. Neither was at fault in a moment of simple misfortune, but still – contact with a team-mate is always awkward, especially as Leclerc’s race was now severely compromised. Or at least that’s what we thought…

Ferraris switch places

Against the apparent laws of aerodynamics and racing car design, Leclerc’s pace appeared largely unhindered by the injury to his front wing which was said to be costing him between “20-30 points of downforce,” according to his team. Instead, as Piastri established his lead, chased by Norris who had got ahead of Russell at the start, Leclerc stuck close to the rear wing of Hamilton’s fourth-placed Ferrari. Verstappen had uncharacteristically lost ground in those early skirmishes.

Even when he made what turned out to be his only pitstop, Leclerc didn’t lose time as the team elected not to change the damaged front wing, and he resumed still right with Hamilton who had come in before him. Such was his pace, it was decided the best course of action was for the pair to switch positions, to unleash Leclerc and give him the opportunity to pursue Russell.

Cue another awkward team-mate moment, even though Hamilton apparently instigated the action. Naturally, he was only willing to do so on his own terms. He’d let Leclerc by “when he's closer,” and he wasn’t about to move over when and where he’d been ordered to. “I’ll tell you when we’re going to swap,” he said a little testily. The moment came on lap 21 through Turn 1, after which Leclerc pressed on to hunt down Russell.

Two-stop backfire

There was still plenty of time for Hamilton to work himself back into this race. But, it turned out, the assumed pre-race optimum strategy ended up playing against him.

By common consensus, a tendency for tyre graining on the Shanghai track’s surface should have made two stops the fastest route to the finish. Not so, as it turned out. Instead, Pirelli’s choice of the C2 compound as the hard tyre for this weekend changed the shape of the race. It proved far more durable than expected and as the laps ticked down it became obvious that the frontrunners, having used up the medium tyre during the opening stint, wouldn’t need to stop again.

As for Hamilton, he now faced a dilemma: press on in fifth with no obvious way of getting back into this race, or go for the original two-stop plan and hope fresh Pirellis would give him an edge against tyre-limited rivals in the closing stages. He’d have been sitting pretty if a safety car had been called.

So, on lap 38 of 56 in he came again, for fresh hards, at the cost of only one position to Verstappen. The trouble was, now sixth, the 18-second gap to the Red Bull only reduced in fractions over the following laps. And that safety car never came. It had been worth a try with so little to lose – but the ploy just didn’t work out.

Double disqualification

Up front, Piastri scored an impressive and unchallenged third Grand Prix victory, with Norris completing a dominant McLaren 1-2 despite being “scared” by a disconcerting long brake pedal in the final laps. Russell had undercut ahead of him in the stops, only for Norris to hit back with an easy pass at Turn 1. But had the race run much longer the Mercedes would likely have had the chance to pounce, given the nervy state of Norris’ “critical” braking ability in those final laps.

Behind the top three, Verstappen had played a patient game on a weekend when he openly admitted his only hope of victory was for those ahead to retire. But finally, in the closing stages, the Red Bull had some pace the World Champion could work with. Untroubled by any threat from Hamilton, he closed in on Leclerc and made a well-thought-out pass through Turn 1 into Turn 2. The Ferraris had to settle for a solid but disappointing five-six result.

Then a double bombshell: Hamilton was disqualified for an overly worn skid block, and Leclerc was also out after his car came in 1kg underweight – a consequence, said Ferrari, of only stopping once. “This meant his tyre wear was very high, causing the car to be underweight,” read a Ferrari team statement. Shades of Russell’s DSQ at Spa last year when he’d won on the road with a one-stopper that then proved his undoing.

The rulings promoted Esteban Ocon to a fabulous fifth place for Haas after a terrific drive by the Frenchman, who must be counting his blessings in the wake of his winter switch from Alpine. Andrea Kimi Antonelli was a solid sixth for Mercedes ahead of birthday boy Alex Albon, who briefly led on an offset strategy in his Williams.

And there were points for Ollie Bearman in the other Haas, as the teenage rookie caught the eye with a series of ruthless passing moves, having started the race on the hard tyre. He moved up from tenth at the finish to eighth once the scrutineers were done.

No panic for Hamilton

So all in all, another tough Sunday for Hamilton. As in Australia, there were some tense exchanges over the radio to his pitwall engineer Riccardo Adami as this time he called for more information. Perhaps in such moments he misses the familiarity of his old Mercedes engineer Pete ‘Bono’ Bonnington in his ear. Then again, Hamilton has spoken about the adjustment he must make, how everything is new and how therefore it will take time to acclimatise.

These are new relationships, Ferrari is learning how Hamilton works and what he needs, and Lewis is feeling his way into how to get the best from new colleagues. It’s bound to take a little time – although that’s a commodity Liam Lawson seemingly lacks. If the rumble of foreboding drums is anything to go by, the Kiwi is about to be demoted back to Racing Bulls in a switch with Yuki Tsunoda with immediate effect, after just two admittedly disastrous races for Red Bull. Brutal.

A different story for Hamilton, of course. What he won’t do is panic. He’s too long in the tooth for knee-jerk reactions, and anyway, the sprint race pole and victory were genuine signs of what Hamilton and Ferrari are capable of together. He and the team can still take heart from that, despite how things unravelled the following day.

OK, the combination has misfired in the opening two Grands Prix and there’s no hiding from that. But before long, perhaps at round three at Suzuka next week, they will piece together a full performance across a whole Grand Prix weekend.

Keep the faith. It’ll come.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.