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Lewis Hamilton qualified in 6th position in China and had the following to say:

I’m a little disappointed – we wanted to get pole today, and thought we could –, and I don’t really know where the time went in Q3.

The tyres felt fine – pretty much exactly the same as in Q1 and Q2, when the car felt great – but in Q3 the car started moving around a lot more, and it felt like the front was bottoming.

We’d been quick all weekend, but sixth was the best I could do in Q3. I think we ought to have been further up the grid – but we’ll fight our way as far up the field as we can tomorrow. I’m sure it will be a good race.

Lewis Hamilton posted the fastest time in the 2nd free practice session in China with 1m 35.217s, followed by Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg with 1m 35.465s compared to Jenson Button’s 1m 35.593s. Michael Schumacher was 4th in the second Mercedes on 1m 35.602s. The two Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber completed the sub-1m 36s runners with respective times of 1m 35.791s and 1m 35.995s.

Lewis Hamilton’s comments:

We may have topped the timesheets in each session, but I don’t necessarily think today’s times make us the favourites for this race. The car does feel good, but our pace looks pretty similar to some of the other cars on long runs.

Everyone talks about us having a straight-line advantage, but that’s not true – other cars have the same speed as us at the end of the straight. We’re a little bit quicker than some teams, but, equally, they’re able to run more downforce. It’s about getting a good balance – and we feel we’ve got that.

We’re continuing with the good feeling we felt in Malaysia, but we’ve made some further subtle changes and they were encouraging. I come out of today with a positive feeling – we’ll now keep our heads down and concentrate on gaining a strong qualifying position tomorrow.

Lewis Hamilton speaks about the upcoming 2010 Chinese F1 race:

It’s hard to believe that we’re heading into the fourth race of the year – the races have gone by so quickly. After Malaysia, I had a little bit of time to reflect on the year so far, and I’m pleased with the results that Jenson and I have been able to achieve in some challenging circumstances. And I’m really looking forward to an uninterrupted weekend in China so we can focus on racing and competing with the other leading teams in the championship.




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