Hamilton silences critics: 'Not only winning with a dominant car'

After six years Lewis Hamilton once again won the opening race of the season but the World Champion had to face off against strong competition from Red Bull. Mercedes' strategy ultimately allowed him to stay just ahead of Max Verstappen.

Easy victims

Hamilton himself was at least not confident that he could hold on to the lead when Verstappen rapidly approached in the final laps of the race. "I couldn't believe I could keep him behind me," the Briton told Motorsport-Total.com. "After his pit stop, he was about eight seconds behind me and then ate up the gap very quickly. When the team told me he would have us with ten laps to go, I knew we were going to be easy victims."

Winning without a dominant car

The tension mounted in the final laps for the world champion, but he relished every minute of it. With the win, Hamilton was also able to silence his critics who say he can only win in a dominant car. "It was definitely a blessing," Hamilton said of it. "I think there are always ways to prove people wrong. And this was one of them."

"But I hope there will be many more opportunities in the future to prove what I can do", he continued. "We were lucky that Max went out at turn four, but that won't happen again. I'm sure of that. We just have to do better and be smarter when we don't have the fastest car like we do at the moment. But for me that's fine. I don't mind having to push harder to make up the difference."