How Lewis Hamilton overcame thrilling Leclerc battle for first Ferrari podium

After a gap of more than a year, Lewis Hamilton has returned to the podium, marking his first top-three finish since joining Ferrari.

He eventually overcame Charles Leclerc in a back-and-forth battle throughout the race, but it was not enough to be able to reel in the dominant Mercedes duo at the front. Let’s take a look at how he did it.

Lewis Hamilton secures first Ferrari podium in Chinese Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton was in top form from the very start of the weekend in China. He has often said this is one of his favourite circuits, and the results backed that up; he was faster than his teammate in both the Sprint and the main qualifying sessions.

Both Ferrari drivers secured strong starting positions for Sunday’s race, with Hamilton lining up in P3 and Leclerc right behind in P4.

The start of the race, much like last week, highlighted the excellent launch performance of the Ferrari cars. The smaller turbocharger on the Ferrari seems to be making a real difference on track, allowing the car to pick up speed faster and providing more power out of slow corners.

Telemetry data shows that compared to the Mercedes drivers, Hamilton upshifts to second gear much earlier and reaches 50 km/h sooner – the point where the electric motor boost can kicks in.

As a result, the Briton emerged from Turn 1 as the new race leader. However, his time at the front was brief. Once the tyres reached their ideal temperature, the natural pace advantage of the Mercedes W17 became clear.

By the second lap, Kimi Antonelli overtook Hamilton on the long straight with ease. The difference in top speed was significant, as shown in the graph below.

Two laps later, Russell made the same move, putting the Mercedes cars back into the top two spots.

On Lap 10, a mechanical failure for the Aston Martin brought out the Safety Car, spoiling the potential strategic battle of this race. While strategy isn’t always Ferrari’s strongest suit, it was their only real way to put the Mercedes duo under pressure during the race.

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Instead of a strategic chess match, we got a rolling restart, which gave Ferrari another chance to show how dangerous they are in the opening laps of a stint.

Hamilton, followed quickly by Leclerc, moved past Russell, which triggered a new battle on track – this time between the two team-mates.

This duel between the Ferrari pair, which Russell eventually joined, actually played into Antonelli’s hands. While they fought behind him, the young Italian was able to pull away and secure his maiden career victory.

The graph below shows how much time George Russell lost while stuck behind the Ferraris. By the time he finally used his faster car to reclaim P2, the gap to Kimi was almost seven seconds.

The battle for the podium between Hamilton and Leclerc continued, providing some brilliant racing. In reality, track position mostly depended on how much battery energy each driver had available, something we as viewers can’t always see, but the entertainment was undeniable.

A deciding moment in this fight was Leclerc’s mistake on Lap 35, when he locked his front wheels under braking for Turn 14. This error cost the Monegasque about 1.6 seconds, which Lewis used immediately to snatch P3.

Leclerc tried to fight back, but the momentum had shifted. By Lap 40, Hamilton had built a comfortable gap, and the battle for the top positions was effectively settled.

The data shows just how much time the Ferrari drivers lost while racing each other compared to the Mercedes cars. Even after their battle, due to higher tyre wear, they couldn’t match the race pace of the leaders. Hamilton finished the race 25 seconds behind Antonelli – who actually lost 2.5 seconds with a late mistake in the closing laps.

Comparing the second-stint times, the gap to the front remains clear: Lewis was on average 0.6s per lap slower, while Leclerc was 0.7s off the pace.

While much of that time was lost to on-track fighting and the fact that Kimi and Russell had clean air ahead of them, the underlying pace is still the main challenge. Ferrari is clearly the second-fastest car on the grid and currently the only threat to Mercedes, but they still need to find that extra bit of performance to truly compete for the win.

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