Hamilton hits out at ‘yapping’ critics after China sprint win

Lewis Hamilton’s victory in the Chinese Grand Prix, his first victory for Ferrari, drew criticism from “yapping” fans.

The seven-time champion returned to his previous team’s victory on Sunday’s main event by placing fifth in the grid for the main event, but he said he was “optimistic” of a positive outcome.

Hamilton did not name the individuals he was referring to, but Hamilton claimed they “lacked understanding” of how challenging it was to start anew with a new team.

The 40-year-old said, “People just love to be negative whenever they have the chance.” They’ll only be negative about it, even with the smallest things.

That’s exactly the difficult time we’re currently in.

“I see some people, and again, I don’t read the news, but I do hear a few bits,” she said.

Some of them blatantly have no idea what’s happening, just a real lack of appreciation.

“I’ve heard yapping along the way, and the criticism is clearly not understanding,” I said. Perhaps because they were unaware or never had the experience.

Last weekend, Hamilton qualified eighth and placed 10th overall for Ferrari in his first race there.

But he won the sprint title in Shanghai on Friday, leading home Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri from Red Bull, and then followed up with a dominant win.

Hamilton said, “I felt incredibly at ease with myself. “Definitely more so than usual,” I would say. Although I’m generally a relatively quiet person, I feel a stillness today that I haven’t felt in a while.

I arrived in the car an extra hour early because I had a long absence and wanted to be present and enjoy it. a good beginning challenging race

It’s difficult to describe how it feels in words. It’s a sprint race, after all. Not the main race, though. But to get there is only a good first step, even if it means getting there first.

After the sprint, Ferrari altered their car, and other teams made the most of their own results, putting Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc together in the third row.

George Russell and Lando Norris, both of whom won for McLaren in Australia, were second and third for Piastri.

Verstappen leads Hamilton, Leclerc, and Hamilton overall in the grand prix standings.

Hamilton remarked, “We made some adjustments to improve race performance., It was undoubtedly more difficult over a single lap.

“The car started to get a little squirmy. At the end, the lap wasn’t as clean. I should have been 0. 2 or 0. 1 sec further up. Although not ideal, we are not too far away.

“I have good plans for tomorrow, want to jump off at least one car, and. and then gradually climb. I’ll create a master plan for tonight, and then I have to try to carry it out.

After qualifying first in two sprint events before, Piastri took the pole for his first Sunday grand prix.

After all the drivers struggled to maintain their rubber in the sprint, Piastri has the advantage going into a race that is anticipated to be dominated by tire management.

Norris acknowledged making too many mistakes while attempting to find the pole.

It’s the quickest car, according to Norris, “we’ve never doubted.” It can occasionally just be a little feisty, she said.

It’s still challenging to drive, they say. Every so often, but occasionally putting a lap together, we can do good sectors. It seems simple to understand how to do it consistently enough.

Oscar did a good job, but I didn’t do a perfect job. I just paid the price for not doing well enough because it’s tight.

Piastri completed two laps quickly enough for him to take pole position, and he also underlined the difficulties of the McLaren car when he claimed that he nearly gave up on Norris’ final lap.

The Australian claimed that, while my first lap was undoubtedly better than my second, I lost a little time just at the end of the straight and didn’t do the best hairpin.

“And then I realized I was 0 / 2 behind myself on the second lap, so I kind of said, “Why not send it into the hairpin?” And in the last corner, I found a little bit more and then gained those two tenths.

“So, to be honest, I was tempted to box [pit] before that. So I’m happy to report that I didn’t because I simply did a good corner, that’s all.

Russell, who had significantly improved on his final lap and was only 0.02 seconds off pole, described it as “a real surprise” that the McLarens split and were placed in the front row.

However, he claimed it was “a little stretch” for him to believe he could win the grand prix.

“We are aware of their quickness. Any team’s future depends heavily on anything other than a P3.