168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton has hailed Mercedes’ “huge improvement” after he secured second in the China sprint race - his best result of the 2024 F1 season.

Hamilton took the race lead on the opening lap of the sprint away from 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lando Norris after an aggressive start whi✨ch saw🥂 the McLaren driver go wide.

The seven-time world champion controlled the race from the front, extending his lead over 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Fernando Alonso to over two seconds.

Inevitably, 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen cut his way through, before overt🐻aking Hamilton o🎶n Lap 9.

Hamil🧸ton’s pace was still good enough from that point onwards to secure secoꦛnd - adding seven points to his championship tally.

“That’s the best result I🐠’ve had in a long time,” he said after the sprint. “Of course, I am super, super happy, and grateful. We couldn’t fight the Red Bulls today.☂ This is a huge step.

“A huge improvement. At least, with the rain, that really helped naturally. The raceꦛ was tough. If I was further back I would have struggled perhaps to progress. I found out a lot about the car through this short stint for the race. I am excited for tomorrow.”

For the first time in ♓F1 history, the drivers will take to the track again for qualifying - just three hours after racing in the sprint.

With the forecast set to be dry, Hamilton isn’t hopeful of replicati💛ng his sprint qualifying heroics, conceding a number of teams are simply qui🌃cker over one lap.

“I still think we’re still not🐎 as quick on a single lap as the Ferraris, Red Bulls,” he added. “I think the McLarens are ahead of us for sure and possibly the Astons. We’re probably close to the Astons but we will see today. I don’t anticipate we will be fighting for the front row.

“The fortunate thing is that we can make some adjustments so hopefully I can improve the car in the next three hours and have a be🎃tter qualifying session than we have ha🍨d in the past.”