Hamilton addresses F1 title chances after key Ferrari breakthrough

Lewis Hamilton has cooled talk of a potential F1 title charge this year after sealing victory in the sprint race from China.

Hamilton controlled the 19-lap shootout after taking pole position on Friday.

It marked the seven-time champion's first victory in red having made the switch to Ferrari for the current campaign.

Hamilton eked out a strong gap to Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen in the latter stages of the race, having felt pressure from Verstappen early on.

With Ferrari out-pacing McLaren, who have been labelled as the clear championship favourites so far this year, Hamilton was asked if he believes he is now in a title fight.

“We’ve just come from a race where we finished 10th,” Hamilton told media including RacingNews365. “So there are so many factors to really take into account.

“I guess we just can't get ahead of ourselves off that one result. The car felt good today. And yes, managed to finish ahead of a McLaren and a Red Bull.”

As Hamilton highlighted the performance advantage could swing from track-to-track, he stated the key to settling into a championship fight will rest in qualifying.

“But that doesn't necessarily mean... look at qualifying, it’s very, very close. So not making the mistakes is going to be key.

“We seem to be there or thereabouts this weekend, which is really good. I hope that that continues. From track to track, we'll have to wait and see. We saw last week we didn't have that.

“So I'm hoping that there's a lot of learnings from last week that we applied already to this week and the car has been in a much better place. 

“So I hope that we can keep it there. And if we can, then yes, that makes me happy.”