Chinese GP Sprint: Hamilton masterclass

Hamilton had to fend off the attacking Max Verstappen at the start keeping the Dutchman starting from second on the grid at bay and never relinquishing the lead after that.

The first lap saw some reshuffling of the order with Lando Norris dropping three positions after getting caught out on the brakes while Charles Leclerc lost out to George Russell in the Mercedes.

After that, it status quo was maintained for some time until Verstappen stepped on it and closed in on Hamilton, but after a few laps of chasing and failing to make a move, the #1 RB21 ran out of tyres and was not under pressure from the #81 McLaren.

The Piastri turned up the heat on Verstappen attacking relentlessly with the latter trying to hold on to second with all his talent, but he could not do much as once his front tyres were dead - as he reported on the radio - Piastri managed to make a move stick with four laps to go.

After that, Piastri set out to chase down Hamilton, but the seven-time F1 champion had done a great job managing his tyres and had enough in them to pull out a gap the Aussie could not close down.

In the end, Hamilton took his first win for Ferrari, just in his first outing with the team, much to the joy of the crowds in the grand stands who showed the new Ferrari man the love he deserved on the day.

Speaking in Parc Ferme after the race, Hamilton made sure he sent out a message to those criticizing his slow start to life at Ferrari.

"I woke up feeling great today," the Briton began. "The first race [in Australia] was difficult. I really do feel a lot of people underestimated the steep climb it is to get into a new team, become acclimatised within the team, understanding and communication - all sorts of things.

"The amount of critics and people I heard, yapping along the way, clearly not understanding maybe because they never had the experience or were unaware.

"It felt great to come here and be more comfortable in the car because in Melbourne I didn't feel great in the car. From Lap 1 this weekend we have been on it.

"The engineers and mechanics have done a great job to finetune the car and it felt great. It's hard to look after the tyres but everyone was struggling," he pointed out in conclusion.

Piastri added: "It was a productive Sprint. Finishing second is always a good result. I learned a lot.

"We didn't quite have enough pace for Lewis in front but we have some good ideas for this afternoon and tomorrow to see if we can go one better.

"We have good pace in the car but have some competition this weekend as the Ferraris look rapid," he concluded.

While many expected fireworks between Hamilton and Verstappen with 2021 popping its head once again, the latter did not have the firepower to challenge and admitted he was in survival mode especially towards the end.

"I tried to give it a go because I had Oscar behind me pushing, so was staying in DRS," Verstappen said. "Unfortunately, the last eight laps we didn't have the pace of the others so I was trying to survive out there.

"I definitely take P3. It was tough to manage the tyres, but it's OK, we will try to do better. In general, we just lack a bit of pace so you have to push harder and that hurts your tyres," he concluded.

Having started the race from fifth, Russell made a position on Leclerc in the Ferrari and the pair remained that way all throughout the 19-lap Sprint until the Monegasque tried to regain the position towards the end which did not work, as he was complaining about his SF-25 being undriveable in some corners.

With Russell in fourth, Leclerc in fifth, Yuki Tsunoda brought his car home in sixth after starting form eighth as Andrea Kimi Antonelli was seventh fastest in the Mercedes.

The most underwhelming drive of the day goes to Norris who started from sixth after his poor Sprint Qualifying. He lost positions at the start and spent the race stuck behind the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll and unable to make any inroads.

Norris managed to make a move towards the end on the Canadian to take the final point-scoring position.

With the Sprint now out of the way, the focus shifts towards qualifying a few hours later as the teams will take the lessons learned from their 19 laps of racing and apply setup changes to their cars that are now out of parc ferme conditions as per the rules of a Sprint weekend.

The teams will now be able to react with Pirelli changing the tyre pressure, increasing them on Friday to cope with the loads of the newly-surfaced Shanghai International Circuit.

The Italian tyre maker imposed the changes while the cars where in parc ferme conditions to the teams had no chance but to live with the repercussions.

Let's see what qualifying holds.