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Hamilton faces tough task, Alonso cleared to race
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REIGNING Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton will have to make up considerable ground in the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday if he’s going to capture his first race of the season and close the gap on Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in the drivers’ standings.
Hamilton received a five-place grid penalty in Shanghai for making an early switch of his gearbox after it was damaged in a collision at the Bahrain Grand Prix two weeks ago.
Hamilton, though, seemed unfazed by the fact he can only start as high as sixth in Sunday’s race, even though he’s already 17 points behind Rosberg in the standings following a disappointing start to the season.
“When you hear on the Wednesday morning that you’re arriving at the weekend with a penalty already, of course, that changes the approach to the weekend and it changes the mindset a little bit,” he said at the track yesterday. “But for me, a challenge is an opportunity to rise.”
Rosberg is confident after sweeping the races in Australia and Bahrain to start the season — and capturing five straight races going back to last season — but he knows he can’t count Hamilton out, particularly on a track where the British driver has prevailed four times before (2008, 2011, 2014-15) and each of the last two years.
“A Hamilton that starts sixth is still going to challenge for the win and we know that,” the German said. “I’m not taking anything for granted at all.”
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, is looking forward to just getting behind the wheel again following a frightening crash at the season-opening race in Melbourne that left his car in a mangled heap on the track and him with a fractured rib.
The FIA doctors ruled him out of the Bahrain GP, but the Spaniard was given provisional clearance to take part in today’s practice in Shanghai, after which further tests will be done to ensure he’s fit enough for the rest of the weekend.
“In Bahrain, I was mentally 100 percent, ready to race, but physically I had a lot of pain,” he said. “Now the situation has improved a lot and I’m mentally 120 percent now, but physically also 100 percent with no pain in the last couple of days.”
Formula One will also revert to last year’s qualifying format in China after experimenting with a new rolling-elimination system in the first two races that proved unpopular with drivers.
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