© Sebastian Kawka for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
Mercedes’ Technical Director James Allison says “we’ve got to take our hats off to Lewis for absolutely getting it together in incredibly difficult circumstances in that sprint qualifying”.
In Mercedes’ Chinese Grand Prix debrief video, Technical Director James Allison praised Lewis Hamilton for his fantastic P2 in Sprint Qualifying, under extremely bad weather conditions.
Furthermore, he said he did not expect Mercedes to be able to hang onto that P2 in the Sprint Race, but Lewis made it happen.
“If I’m honest, no, I didn’t expect that we would hang on to P2 because I don’t think the car’s quick enough to merit that at the moment,” Allison said.
“The rain was a tricky thing for everybody in sprint qualifying. I think we’ve got to take our hats off to Lewis for absolutely getting it together in incredibly difficult circumstances in that sprint qualifying and cars were going off the track left, right and centre.
“He hit it very cleanly and deserved that place, that P2 on the grid. But in the dry conditions of the sprint race, I felt we were likely to get swallowed up by the two Red Bulls, by others as well, because we do have a pace difference to the leading cars at the moment and there’s no point denying that.
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
“However, we were, I think, a little bit, you know, things went our way a little bit with the way that Norris fell off the pace, did a poor start and disappeared backwards.
“And with Fernando then being at the head of the faster cars, they took a while to find their way past him and that bought us some breathing space.
“I don’t want to downplay the achievement because I think it was a very, very well-controlled drive by Lewis, who got the absolute max out of the car in that day and it was a welcome tonic for all of us to, first of all, put the car in a decent grid slot and then bring it to the flag in that same position.
“But I think the circumstances of the race helped us a little bit with Fernando acting as that buffer between us and the faster guys,” the Briton concluded.
