SHANGHAI REVIEW BY BEN STEVENS
The German was at his absolute best,
and in the SF70H, he has a car that if not
on Saturday, come Sunday is every bit the
Mercedes’ equal.
Outside the winner’s circle, the other
big story was once again McLaren, who
with Honda might have the most fruitless
reunion since Hamilton and Nicole
Scherzinger. One engine didn’t even make
it to the grid, while the other gave up after
being sworn at by Fernando Alonso for 90
minutes. Forget improving on last year,
they’d do well just to get back to that level
the way they’re going.
Also I wonder if Williams and Lance
Stroll have some sort of “we take your cash,
you take our points” agreement in effect,
as with a third-straight DNF, he’s certainly
doing them no favours in the standings. His
race-ending clash with a just-pitted Carlos
Sainz down into turn 1 may not have been
entirely his fault, but it’s the definition of
a rookie mistake, and one Williams can
ill afford when Force India is right on their
tail. Adding insult to injury, Felipe Massa
was able to take the same car to P6 and even
mix it up with a Ferrari. So much for Paddy
Lowe having less headaches in his new job.
Three races into the 2017 season, and
the game is well-and-truly afoot. Bahrain
was another exciting race where the see-saw
swung back towards Ferrari, and it’s once
again up to Mercedes to respond.
Bring on Sochi.