Outside Line: Hamilton vs Verstappen, Red Flag to a Raging Bull

First and foremost, we saw Lewis Hamilton claim a top-spot start in only his second race for Ferrari. Indeed, only his second qualifying session for the team, and he not only stunned the field—most of all, he nipped it from Max Verstappen, his nemesis, by less than two-hundredths of a second.

It was mesmerising stuff. Verstappen set out on his final lap, his last-ditch effort, one shot—and narrowly missed. Instead, Sprint Race pole position goes to Lewis Hamilton, vindicating all the money Ferrari spent to get him there and getting the marriage off to a great start after the honeymoon had been rescinded following a below-par Australian Grand Prix.

Fast forward a week. Hamilton, with more time in the car - albeit only FP1 - somehow wrenched everything he could from the Ferrari SF25, even bettering Charles Leclerc by two-tenths of a second, which is an age in this era of Formula 1. It was also the first time Lewis has topped his teammate in any session so far this year.

So there we have it: Hamilton on pole, a seven-time World Champion, with four-time World Champion Verstappen beside him. The two best F1 drivers of this generation—perhaps of this century—on the front row, with 18 others chasing. Stage set.

I did notice, last weekend in Melbourne, despite qualifying behind both McLarens, that Verstappen’s demeanour was far different to what we saw in Shanghai today. He clearly hates losing—but losing to Hamilton, by so little, really seemed to have stung him more. Post-quali in parc fermé, whenever the camera was on him, you could just see he was highly pissed off.

And we know: an angry Max is a fast Max. But Hamilton who has and can always be the guy to fend him off—armed with a race-winning car, or at least a car as good as the Red Bull, so it seemed today. Not that McLaren were off the pace—they should have been on pole, and perhaps annexed the front row as they did in Australia. But they dropped the ball. But this is not their story.

Looking ahead to the Sprint Race, into Turn 1 - that never-ending snail of a corner, winding right then spiralling to the left before they gas it. It’s going to be super intriguing: Verstappen versus Hamilton. Popcorn time!

Both in the league of Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher—a quartet of men who hate losing more than they like winning. Think about it. The reason those four became great is because of their 'hatred' of being P2.

Senna hated it and teammates knew. Schumacher was ruthless, no teammate ever got a proper look-in in his heyday. Likewise Hamilton, likewise Verstappen. The 'hatred' of losing is greater than the joy they get from winning. Victories are a byproduct of that inner war.

A kind of sporting 'hatred' in a Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman; or a Roy Keane vs Patrick Vieira; Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal sort of way. Not forgetting our very own Senna vs Prost! Great rivals, united by a shared hatred of second-best.

And with Hamilton and Verstappen on the front row, this is - as I often say - akin to an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. They have a history. The long-standing feud between them is well known. There is no love!

We don’t always get great Sprint races. But this one on Saturday in Shanghai has all the hallmarks of a classic. Because Hamilton starting from P1, his Ferrari is a Red flag waved at a prize Bull aka Verstappen. Let’s see where everyone stands when the dust settles in China. And there will be dust.