Lewis Hamilton: “I love being able to fight…”

Lewis Hamilton put in one of the drives of his career in China, charging onto the tail of leader Sebastian Vettel in the closing laps, and getting by with five laps to go.

The McLaren driver made one more stop than the German, which left him on fresher tyres for the crucial final stint.

The win was all the more dramatic thanks to an engine problem prior to the grid, which was only just resolved in time to get him out before the pitlane closed.

“I was in the car nice and early to go out and then we had a problem as the car just would not start,” said Hamilton. “I am still not sure exactly what went on but they had to take a lot of the bodywork off and I knew there was six minutes to go.

“Then there was two minutes to go but fortunately everything just came together very quickly. The guys did a great job but, of course, for me it is very important to stay as clam as possible as that reflects on all the guys in the garage. I tried to stay positive and they got the car out which was the most important.”

He charged past Vettel into second place at the start, and later in the race passed team mate Jenson Button in a brilliant move at Turn One.

“Every inch of the race, every second, was incredibly enjoyable. I love being able to fight with different drivers and have the battles and have them at their best. I really felt that today. Whilst the tyres were going off on some of the cars, I felt they were really performing and driving very well to defend their position, so it made that even more exciting.

“I think with the whole thing that happened in the pitlane, I was confident going into the race but perhaps I wasn’t even going to be in the race. I thought I was going to be back with Mark, and obviously just the way the race turned out. I came out behind someone and I think Sebastian came past me at one stage.

“I wanted to pit at one stage and Jenson was pitting, so I couldn’t pit as he was pitting. I had to try and keep things up and I was just able to pull through several cars. I couldn’t believe I was catching Sebastian. He was doing a great job to stay ahead. He put up a very, very fair and strong fight and I am very happy I was able to get by.”

Hamilton was full of praise for McLaren: “We came out to Barcelona with the upgrade package we had there and it really wasn’t working and the reliability was a disaster. We couldn’t even get past 20 laps. Then they pushed very hard in the space of a week-and-a-half, two weeks, and it was just incredible what they were able to bring to Australia.

“Australia was our first race distance and the car has been great. It really has been great.  Red Bull are doing a fantastic job. They are very, very fast. They have got a wonderful car and they are doing the job and we are having to push with absolutely everything we have to try and close the gap.

“I think today we were similar pace perhaps in the race, I think they were generally a little bit quicker, but I think it was just due to us just trying to be a little bit smarter on the strategy and making it work and fortunately it did today. Other times perhaps it won’t work out but today it did so we are very happy.”