LEWIS PLOTS SHANG-HIGH NUMBER SIX
LEWIS HAMILTON will attempt to halt Sebastian Vettel’s flying start to the season at the China Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Mercedes driver has won the race on the outskirts of Shanghai an unprecedented five times.
And ahead of the third race of the season Hamilton said: “I really hope I’m able to climb the ladder and get back to where we’ve been working towards being in the last two races.”
Hamilton can set an all-time Formula One record of 28 scoring finishes in a row, having equalled Raikkonen’s previous best of 27 with his third place in Bahrain, where he started ninth on the grid. It was his 119th podium finish.
But after wins in the Australian season-opener and Bahrain, the momentum for the moment is with Vettel, the first Ferrari driver since Michael Schumacher in 2004 to start the year with successive victories.
The last time a driver failed to be crowned champion having won the first two races was in 1982, when Alain Prost lost out to Keke Rosberg.
Ferrari last took the chequered flag in China in 2013 and Vettel said: “It’s a tricky one to get everything right.”
Red Bull have had a disappointing start to the campaign and Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen retired in the first five laps in Bahrain.
The former champions have finished on the podium in Shanghai in the last two years and could still make it a three-way fight.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “It will swing from race track to race track.
“I think that’s going to be the model of the season.”