Nico Rosberg has admitted that Lewis Hamilton surprised him during the F1 Sprint at the 2024 Chinese GP after the Mercedes driver made an ‘impressive’ act in Shanghai.
Formula 1 has returned to the Jiading District for the first time since 2019 this year and saw Hamilton challenge for what has become a rare win. The 39-year-old remains without a win in an F1 Sprint since the event first joined the schedule in 2021. But he was back in the mix.
Hamilton secured second place on the grid during Sprint Qualifying and immediately seized the lead off McLaren driver Lando Norris. The Mercedes icon used his seven-time F1 drivers’ championship-winning nous to just edge his British compatriot out at the start of the Sprint.
Lewis Hamilton ‘impressed’ Nico Rosberg by leading the F1 Sprint at the Chinese GP
Hamilton instantly put Norris under firm pressure at the start of the Sprint at the Chinese GP after enjoying a superior launch. It handed the 39-year-old the inside line into the tightening Turn 1-2-3 sequence. But he never once tried to hold onto the apex running through Turn 2.
Norris desperately sought to cling on around Hamilton’s outside through T2 to force his way back past into T3. But the 24-year-old ran out of room as the Mercedes ace drifted out wide and ran off. Norris ultimately ran down in only P7 once he re-joined the track and settled in.
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Hamilton also settled into the lead as Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin proved unable to get close to the rear of his Mercedes in the F1 Sprint at the Chinese GP. But Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, eventually, took the lead away from Hamilton into the Turn 14 hairpin on Lap 9.
Nico Rosberg ‘did not expect’ to see Lewis Hamilton challenge for the win in Shanghai
Verstappen made a simple overtake into the hairpin as Hamilton elected against putting up a strong fight. But the Stevenage-born star leading the F1 Sprint at the Chinese GP through the first nine of 19 laps was one feat 2016 drivers’ champion Rosberg did not expect to see.
“I’m impressed with Lewis,” Rosberg said on Sky Sports F1 (20/04, 04:10) as Hamilton led on Lap 4. “I did not expect that car or him to hang on for so long and it’s going really well. Even with DRS activated now, Fernando is still at that safe distance.”
Hamilton managed to hold onto P2 in the F1 Sprint at the 2024 Chinese GP but finished the event 13.043 seconds behind Verstappen. It marked his joint-best result in a Sprint with the 2021 British GP, where he went on to win the Grand Prix, and the United States GP in 2023.
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