McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton praises team after securing his first win of 2011 Formula 1 season
McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton scored his first victory of the 2011 Formula 1 season at the Chinese Grand Prix after starting from 3rd place on the grid.
Lewis was looking pretty good since the beginning of this season but was unable to match the pace of Red Bull Racing Team.
However, McLaren did a very good job at the Chinese Grand Prix as both of its drivers were looking strong but unfortunately, Jenson Button was unable to finish on the podium as he struggled behind Mark Webber in 4th place during the last few laps.
Qualifying was very crucial for race strategy this weekend and in order to ensure that, Hamilton ran for just 1 lap instead of the usual 2 during the third session of the qualifying round in order to save a fresh pair of soft tyres for the race and managed
to score the 3rd fastest lap in that lone run.
“I think today definitely the strategy that we came up going in to qualifying definitely helped. I think my new option tyres seemed to last me longer compared to the guys in front, but it was a combination of a few things that came together,” said Hamilton.
Both of the McLaren drivers had an excellent start to the Chinese Grand Prix as both of them were able to get ahead of Sebastian Vettel before the first corner of the first lap.
The young British driver was on a three-stop pit strategy and it worked for the team as Hamilton was able to push hard on the hard tyres before each of his respective stop and even though Vettel was on a two-pit strategy, McLaren were able to increase the
gap and won the race.
“The pit stops were fantastic, which was good for us because the guys are always pushing to improve. The car felt great and I think it was just about trying to nurse my tyres while trying to pick up my pace,” he added.
After the race, Lewis Hamilton is now just 21 points short of the leader of the drivers’ standings Sebastian Vettel who has 68 points after three races of the season.
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