Russell doesn’t do anything wrong, Antonelli does. Closest Ferrari, Leclerc-Hamilton duel
(by Daniele Sparisci) by Daniele Sparisci) George Russell wins his second career Sprint, with the attitude of a dominator. He knows he has a space machine and always exploits it. He knows how to wait, let his opponents vent and catch them again. He is also learning to start well, in short, a deadly cocktail for those who chase. But he is alone in defending against a double attack and in the end he could pay for the pressure.
This time it didn’t happen, the 19-lap race was exciting, the new regulation helps to limit the calculations in this sense. Ready to go, it looks like the Melbourne replay: Hamilton sprints like a slingshot taking advantage of the Red’s small turbo, Antonelli crashes again.
From second he slips to seventh, hits Hadjar and gets a 10” penalty. He comes back, overtakes, puts on a show but it’s not enough because with the safety car (Hulkenberg’s retirement, the second in a row, Audi is a young project) he still finds himself behind after the whirlwind of pit stops. Kimi has time to grow, but he must capitalize on the enormous potential he has available. Ferrari achieved important results in the sprint: Leclerc second ahead of Hamilton, the car goes and over the distance manages to get closer to Mercedes than it manages in qualifying. The battle between the two Ferrari drivers was long and intense, and at a certain point Charles complained over the radio: “Do you know how wide these cars are?”.
He accuses his companion of not having left him space, at the finish line he says “that he wasted time”. But the controversy ends here. Skirmishes between garage roommates, similar things had happened in the past with Carlos Sainz, again in a Sprint (Austria 2022), the important thing is to keep the rivalry under control. Certainly the internal comparison helped Russell to build some margin. Charles settled the feud in his own way, managing the tires and pushing when the time was right. A message of superiority, but Lewis is different from last season. He also led the race early on until Russell took countermeasures with energy management, a head-to-head that brought Leclerc back into the pack. «Our car goes fast in the race, which is a positive thing: the pace was excellent and I’m happy» says the Monegasque.
The safety shuffled the gaps, Hamilton who was behind Charles paid more for the pit stop (Ferrari had to make a double pit stop), but it took him little to get rid of Norris who had passed him in the pit lane. Sixth place, while Lawson and Bearman take the last points. Two young people animated by great ambitions: one to redeem himself after being cut by Red Bull, the other wants to demonstrate that he is ready for Ferrari (he comes from the Maranello academy). Ollie ended up ahead of Verstappen, Red Bull did very badly on a severe circuit like Shanghai: «Everything that could go wrong went wrong: from the start to the tire degradation, to the balance. We have more problems than we expected.”
