Hamilton finally secured his first Ferrari podium with third place at the Chinese GP after an epic battle with Charles Leclerc, calling it ‘one of the most enjoyable races’ of his career
Lewis Hamilton was all smiles after “one of the most enjoyable races I’ve ever had” concluded with him finally securing a Formula 1 podium for the first time as a Ferrari driver. He suffered through a challenging debut season in red which failed to deliver a single top-three Grand Prix result, but that drought came to an end on Sunday when he claimed third place at the Chinese Grand Prix.
The spotlight fell on Kimi Antonelli who triumphed for the first time in his fledgling F1 career, becoming just the second teenager in history to savour victory in a Grand Prix. George Russell claimed second to seal another one-two result for Mercedes, and they were accompanied on the podium by a former Silver Arrows legend in Hamilton.
The seven-time champion secured third following a thrilling battle with team-mate Charles Leclerc, which added to what Hamilton called one of the most enjoyable races he had ever witnessed. He said: “I had so much fun. We had a great start. We weren’t able to keep these guys behind, but to stay in the fight.
JOIN US ON FB! Get all the best sports news and much more on our Facebook page
“It was one of the most enjoyable races that I’ve had in a long, long time, if ever. The fact that the cars are the way they are this year, and that battle with Charles at the end was awesome. It was a great wheel-to-wheel battle, very fair and that’s just what we want. We’ve got to keep pushing.”
Hamilton and Leclerc were both uncompromising in their respective approaches to the battle, but kept it clean and Leclerc said over the radio that he was enjoying it a lot. And Hamilton said afterwards: “There was one moment that we did touch, but it was subtle. Just a kiss, so it’s okay.
“This is what it’s about, it’s about tough racing. I’ve got to say a huge thank you to everyone at Ferrari and back at Maranello for getting us into this position.
“I know it’s not exactly where we want to be, we want to be up at the front where these guys are, but we’ve got a great platform to work off and we’ve just got to go full gas.”
Hamilton had made a beeline straight for Antonelli after parking up his Ferrari and climbing out, the two drivers separated by 22 years in age embraced in parc fermé. Hamilton also had some congratulatory words to share for the Italian teenager.
He said of Antonelli’s achievement: “I have to say a huge congratulations to Kimi. I’m so, so happy for you buddy and I’m so honoured to be able to share this moment with him. He took my seat at this great team. A big congratulations to Mercedes who are pulling ahead at the moment, we’ve got a lot of work to do to try to keep up.”