Sky Sports' commentator and analyst,
Martin Brundle, witnessed
Lewis Hamilton start-to-flag win during the sprint race in China, which the former
F1 driver qualified as 'a masterclass', and pinpoints the exact moment where the
Ferrari driver won the race.
'Hamilton won the race in qualifying'
"It was a masterclass," said Brundle to Sky Sports. "Got it off the line and that was where the race was won, even in Qualifying yesterday actually," added the Briton.
Throughout the short race, with the hot temperatures heating up the tarmac, tyre management proved to be vital for the drivers, particularly to the pursuers who were in the wake of the cars ahead. This, according to the analyst, gave Hamilton, who was in the lead, in clean air, the edge to take his first ever win in red.
"He got track position and was throwing hot, turbulent air towards your rivals on a day where tyres are beyond the limit." Indeed, as
Max Verstappen and
Lando Norris proved, with both the
Red Bull Racing and the
McLaren driver issuing messages to their respective teams reporting that their front tyres were gone before the race around the Shanghai International Circuit had ended.