Lewis Hamilton couldn’t hide his emotions when he took the top step upon the podium after Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, ending the dominance of Sebastian Vettel.
The McLaren driver drove a brilliant race to climb from third to first, the final move coming with just a handful of laps remaining.
“I am absolutely overwhelmed,” claimed Hamilton in the press conference. “It feels like a long time since I was sitting here. I am proud and grateful for all the hard work I have put in today.
“I will continue to push and looking forward to many more like this.”
The teams strategy call, switching to a three-stopper, gave Hamilton the opportunity to use his fresh soft tyres saved during qualifying, a decision the Brit believes paid off.
“I think today the strategy that we came up with going in to qualifying definitely helped. Our new option tyres seemed to last a bit longer than the guys in front of us.
“It was quite a few things that came together. The pitstops were fantastic, the guys were pushing to improve, the car felt great.
“Thumbs up to the guys back at factory, who put their heart into making the car what it is on the GP weekend. It feels amazing.”
