Hamilton reveals reasons for swing in performance between Shanghai Sprint and the race

Ferrari's seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton has revealed the reasons for the swing in performance that he suffered between his dominant showing in the F1 Sprint and the remainder of the weekend.

Following a very difficult debut race weekend in Melbourne, Lewis Hamilton displayed a much improved pace at the Chinese Grand Prix. The seven-time F1 champion looked strong from the first laps in the sole practice session, and he shocked his rivals by securing the pole position for the Shanghai F1 Sprint with a brilliant lap.

The British driver then went on to control the 19-lap sprint race to take a dominant maiden victory with the Scuderia. However, he slightly struggled for pace in the main qualifying session, ending up only fifth for the grand prix itself.

Although he took a sensational start on Sunday, he made contact with his team-mate Charles Leclerc. The pair went into Turn 2 on Lap 1 when Hamilton cut back to the racing line, clipping Leclerc’s front wing. As a result of the incident, the Monegasque picked up some damage to his front wing.

Ferrari suggested that the damage led to an aerodynamic loss of 20 to 30 points, which normally required a change, particularly on a track where front-end grip is at a premium due to the long-radius corners. However, Ferrari elected not to change the front wing as it would have sent the Monegasque into heavy traffic.

Despite the severe damage, Leclerc was the faster of the duo which prompted Ferrari to ask its drivers to swap positions. Hamilton then came under pressure from reigning champion Max Verstappen, which meant that the British driver elected to pitted for fresh rubber, opting for a two-stop strategy which turned out to be the slower strategy.

In the end, Leclerc and Hamilton crossed the finish line fifth and sixth respectively, but both cars were subsequently disqualified post-race as the Monegasque's SF-25 was found to be below the minimum weight, while Hamilton's was for a plank infringement.

Assessing his race weekend in Shanghai, the seven-time F1 champion has revealed that the Scuderia opted for some setup changes after the sprint race which did not work out.

"Tough day but a positive weekend overall and we’ve made some good progress since Melbourne. We tried some new set up changes for qualifying and the race that didn’t work out, but that’s a learning we can take with us moving forward.

"I got a good start off the line but started to struggle with pace as the race continued, so suggested swapping with Charles to try and maximise our opportunities as a team. The two-stop strategy helped find some good pace towards the final few laps but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to gain places."

Despite the lack of pace in the 56-lap race and loss of performance compared to the earlier part of the weekend, Hamilton sounded a positive note, claiming that Ferrari will learn from the opening two weekends.

"We’ll go through everything, take the learnings, and come back stronger. It’s a long road to the championship, and we’ll keep pushing," concluded Hamilton.