By Peter Bishop
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton secured his first win in a Ferrari with a dominant victory in the Sprint race at the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix, held at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Hamilton joined Ferrari for the 2025 season after an 11-year stint with Mercedes, where he amassed 103 race wins and seven titles. This win marked Hamilton's first ever triumph in a Formula 1 Sprint race, coming in only his second outing with the Italian team after a challenging debut in Australia where he finished 10th. His engineer praised his "masterclass in tyre management," especially notable given the tyre graining issues faced by many drivers.
Hamilton's move to Ferrari was announced in early 2024, with the British driver replacing Carlos Sainz (now at Williams) and partnering with Charles Leclerc for this season. The transition was highly anticipated, especially given Ferrari's last drivers' title win was in 2007 and Hamilton’s ambition to secure a historic eighth championship.
The Chinese Grand Prix weekend featured a Sprint format, with a single hour of practice on Friday, March 21, followed by Sprint Qualifying and the Sprint race on Saturday, March 22. The Sprint race, covering 19 laps, awards points to the top eight finishers, with the winner earning 8 points.
Hamilton’s weekend began on a high note during Sprint Qualifying on March 21, where he secured pole position with a lap time of 1:30.849, edging out defending champion Max Verstappen by just 0.018 seconds. This was his first pole with Ferrari, a statement of the team’s adjustments after Melbourne. The starting grid for the Sprint saw Hamilton on pole, followed by Verstappen in second, Oscar Piastri of McLaren in third, and Charles Leclerc in fourth, setting up an intense battle at the front.
When the lights went out at 05:00 GMT (08:00 EAT) on March 22, Hamilton nailed his start, fending off Verstappen on the run to the first corner. He quickly built a commanding lead, demonstrating his racecraft and tyre management skills. The Sprint race, run on used medium tyres for all 20 cars, presented challenges with tyre graining, but Hamilton managed to keep his Ferrari SF-25 stable, extending his lead to three seconds by Lap 15.
Behind him, Piastri made a crucial move on Lap 14 at Turn 14, overtaking Verstappen to secure second place. Verstappen, who had been running in second for much of the race, struggled with tyre wear and finished third, 9.804 seconds behind Hamilton. George Russell of Mercedes finished fourth, holding off a late charge from Leclerc, who took fifth, 12.19 seconds off the lead.
Interestingly,Lando Norris, the championship leader, had a pretty difficult race, dropping to ninth early on but salvaging a point by finishing eighth, which cut his lead over Verstappen to just 2 points.
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