Lewis: I won’t walk it in China

LEWIS HAMILTON and his bosses at Mercedes doubt they can run away with Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix like the Silver Arrows did last year.

Hamilton’s team-mate Nico Rosberg took a commanding victory from pole position at Shanghai in 2012.
It turned out to be a one-off, with Mercedes fading badly later in the season.
But the team have started this year strongly, leading to speculation an action replay might be on the cards in China.
Hamilton, though, is far from sure it will happen even though he reckons Mercedes are now Formula One’s second best team behind only Red Bull.
He said: “Mercedes were in a unique situation at the track last year and got everything right.
“The tyres are different this year so you have to anticipate that it’s going to be a little bit different there for us.
“Walking off into the distance is probably not going to be the case.”
But he added: “If the car works well there and we get a similar result it’ll be amazing.”
Merc boss Toto Wolff also warned the team must keep their expectations in check.
He said: “One year on from Nico’s win, a lot of people will be asking whether this is something our team can repeat in 2013.
“But like they say, yesterday’s scores don’t win today’s games and that’s definitely true for us.
“We start again from zero this year and need to work hard to adapt the car to suit the circuit and the tyre compounds we have available.
“Then we will see where we stand relative to the competition.
“We have made a solid start to the season in the first two races with Nico and Lewis both performing at a very high and equal level.
“The development race will be critical so we have more new parts planned for China.
“Our aim has to be to improve on our good start and continue scoring good points.”
Meanwhile, team principal Ross Brawn has revealed he “didn’t like” issuing the order in Malaysia for Rosberg, running in fourth, to hold station behind third-placed Hamilton.
He said: “It’s not in my sporting nature and I think the team have demonstrated many times in the past that we are very happy to let our drivers race each other.”
Brawn explained he gave the order, even though Rosberg felt he was faster than Hamilton, because there had been a fuel issue that made both drivers vulnerable to running dry.
After the race Merc’s non-executive chairman Niki Lauda criticised Brawn’s actions as being wrong in sporting terms.
The triple world champion said: “We need to talk to Ross, if this is the strategy to be used from now on.”
But Brawn said Lauda was unaware of the fuel problem at the time he made his comments.