MIXED WEEKEND AT SHANGHAI FOR MERCEDES PAIR

Lewis Hamilton recovered from 18th on the grid to ninth in the Chinese Grand Prix, with the two Mercedes drivers’ fortunes near reversed from the sprint race as George Russell mixed it much higher up.

Hamilton’s lowly starting spot stemmed from a set-up adjustment following his second place in the sprint. It was aimed at addressing low-speed understeer, but contributed to his hairpin lock-up and Q1 exit.

In the GP, he got trapped on the inside line through Turn 1, which meant he couldn’t gain ground on his soft tyres. He eventually began a steady climb through the lower order, making several neat passes through the swoops of the second sector. He pitted under the virtual safety car and chased on after the second restart, all while struggling with overheating rear tyres.

Russell, eighth in the sprint, jumped the squabbling Ferraris on lap one before Charles Leclerc came past and the Briton pitted ahead of Carlos Sainz on the two-stopper on lap 11. Mercedes reckoned this was too early, but the safety car put Russell back on a tyre-life par with most and he chased Sainz to the flag, a chunk back.

“Where we had put the cars in terms of their set-up after the sprint, P6 and P9 was the best prediction from our pre-race simulations,” team boss Toto Wolff said afterwards, also hoping that a Miami update eliminates the need to make such set-up experiments for the W15’s “knife-edge” sweet spot.