LIGHTNING LEWIS
Hamilton wins then hails rain king Max
VISORS up, a hand extended on the other’s shoulder, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel were all but cooing at the end of a Chinese Grand Prix that roared ‘title fight on’.
But the mutual appreciation society among the joint championship leaders was not the only celebration in the murky outskirts of Shanghai. The other was Max Verstappen shivering Formula One’s timbers with the sheer skill and audacity of his racing.
When it comes to jabbing and darting in the wet, can anyone match the elbows-out, foot-tothe-floor, I’m-coming-through bravura of the 19-year-old?
One of a tiny group who might is Hamilton, but he had no chance to flex his muscles because he started on pole and led throughout, setting the fastest lap, in a textbook exhibition of perfection. His winning margin was 6.2 seconds over Vettel, with Verstappen third. But it was not just where Dutchman Verstappen finished that matters in recounting his afternoon, but where he started: 16th after engine problems in qualifying.
On a drying track after morning drizzle, yet with dangerous pools here and there, he zoomed nine places in a lap. He saw dry lines others did not and seized them in ways others could not.
Just one of his adroit moves came at the sixth corner, where he braked late and slipped past Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo on the inside. It was so simple and effective. At one point a secondplace finish looked possible, but his tyres were going off by the time Vettel’s Ferrari was closing on him. Still, third was excellent, and Hamilton paid tribute to Verstappen, hailing ‘the great job done by this young dude, Max’. Fans voted the Red Bull man their driver of the day.
Wet weather is the proving ground of champions and this was the second occasion Verstappen has shown his mastery, the first being in Sao Paulo last season, when he also came through the field to finish third. Team principal Christian Horner, aware of this, spent part of Saturday night looking up the odds of Verstappen making it on to the podium. ‘33-1’, he said. ‘If it had not been insider trading, I’d have had a flutter. Max has a sixth sense in the wet. He is fearless. He explores all the boundaries of the track to find where the grip is.
‘He is right up there with all the best drivers. It may be that karting in the wet on slicks (dry weather tyres) as a kid developed this special instinct that makes it so natural for him now.’
Back to the front, where victory for Hamilton was sweet after he had finished runner-up to Vettel in Melbourne. The season looks likely to ebb and flow. Next week, for example, the heat of Bahrain is likely to favour Ferrari.
‘It’s going to be one of the closest, if not the closest, fights I’ve experienced,’ said Hamilton. ‘I love this. Sitting with Sebastian I was like: “This is going to go right down to the end of the season”. I hope nothing mechanical comes between our sheer battle through ability. I want an out-and-out fight of stubbornness, of mental stability, of fitness, of composure and of just out-driving the other person.’
Those dreams and sentiments surely lay at the heart of their immediate post-race chat and near embrace. For now, this is the friendly championship.
It was not a great battle for first owing to Hamilton’s competence and Ferrari’s early decision to change Vettel’s tyres when a virtual safety car was deployed.
It might have worked but for the almost immediate use of the actual safety car — after Antonio Giovinazzi had spun his Sauber — negating any potential advantage. That Giovinazzi crash on the start-finish straight was probably the most dramatic moment of a race that had been in jeopardy according to many weather forecasts. As it was, the rain was light and the stands were packed with 80,000 spectators, who cheered every wheel-to-wheel joust.
And, yes, there were a number of overtakes, contradicting predictions of nothing but processions given the new bigger breed of 2017 cars. All yesterday’s passes had to be earned, whereas last season there were hundreds — but how many of those can you remember? As the paddock buildings were being dismantled ready for Bahrain, along loped Verstappen.
‘We enjoyed that,’ he was told. ‘It was okay, wasn’t it?’ he said, with a modesty that suggested he did not quite know how brightly he had illuminated the day.