Lewis Hamilton continues to flutter his eyelashes flirtatiously in the direction of Lady Luck but still she scorns him. All week he had been praised for the dogged quality of his positivity, his persevering good cheer in the face of adversity; like Hamlet he would have been perfectly entitled to bang on about the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune but he chose not to, displaying an almost inappropriate felicity instead.
Late on Sunday afternoon, however, as a gloaming began to close on Shanghai’s International Circuit and he was forced to consider the consequences of Nico Rosberg’s third successive Formula One win this season and the fact that he was suddenly 36 points behind in the world championship, it seemed there was a real danger of a forlornness infiltrating his soul.
There are, of course, 18 races to go in this longest F1 year in the sport’s history. But the notion that luck always evens itself out over a season is a flawed one. This could be Rosberg’s lucky year – it is possible to come to the end of a long life and still register an imbalance in the columns of good and bad fortune.
Hamilton was a little quieter now, as the crouching, ugly concrete monster of the main grandstand disgorged its spectators, who teemed towards the Shanghai Metro congratulating themselves that they had just watched the best race of the season.
The three-times world champion, who had failed to get the rub of the tarmac in the first two races in Australia and Bahrain, entered the weekend with a five-place grid penalty hanging over him because of a gearbox replacement but still expecting to have a good race from sixth or seventh place.
Even his relegation to the back of the grid on Saturday, after he was unable to set a timed lap in qualifying because of a problem with his power unit, did not leave him unduly disheartened.
On Sunday, though, Hamilton could do no better than seventh place. He made a charging start, bursting through the back of the field so effectively that going into the first corner he had already made up five places. But then, after running over a piece of Kimi Raikkonen’s front wing, he was hit by Felipe Nasr, who was himself trying to avoid another collision.
Hamilton made three pit stops in the first 15 minutes of the race, one for repairs on his front wing, one to shoe himself with supersofts for a single lap and another to return to softs. In the end he made five stops.
Repeatedly he charged through the field, only to lose ground with another stop. He resembled some thoroughbred favourite, galloping over Aintree’s acres but held back by too heavy weights. “There’s a long, long way to go,” Hamilton said. “Lots can happen. It is just I don’t have any more jokers available really.
“It was a pretty horrifying race really but there were some good experiences, there was some good overtaking. There are lots of different emotions and thoughts going through my mind as I see the season start the wrong way. But this is a part of motor racing. This is a part of the journey. These experiences bring us closer, make us stronger, myself, my mechanics, my engineers.
“As I’m talking right now, I definitely don’t feel the dark cloud I’ve had over me in the past. Of course it’s a trying time. I got a good start, there was great overtaking – I can still overtake! There’s lots of positives to take from today. I ultimately wasn’t able to show all my ability in terms of pure pace because of the damaged car. I’ll go away, come back. We fell this weekend. We’ll get up and try harder in the next one.”
Rosberg, who sauntered home 37.7 seconds ahead of Sebastian Vettel, may be surprised to learn that it was a chaotically enthralling race. He was like some senior officer, far removed from the cut and thrust of the trench warfare. He joins only three men who have won six successive races, Vettel (9), Alberto Ascari (7) and Michael Schumacher (6).
He has another, less welcome record: with 17 F1 victories he has now overtaken Stirling Moss as the most successful driver without a world championship.
He was, briefly, overtaken by Daniel Ricciardo going into Turn 1, where there was mayhem, with the Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen coming together following an aggressive move from Daniil Kvyat, who finished third. Vettel condemned Kvyat over the team radio and the spat continued after the race.
Rosberg, who has not overtaken anyone in his three wins except off the grid, regained the lead on the third lap when Ricciardo sustained a left-rear puncture as he came into contact with debris. He and Vettel have probably been the most impressive drivers over the weekend, though once again Rosberg was immaculate.
In the Mercedes motorhome Toto Wolff attempted to disentangle the mess of the race. The team’s motorsport director said: “Lewis made a good start. Then he became a victim of the tangling between the Ferraris. The Sauber then made a move to avoid Raikkonen, hit him hard and the front wing was damaged, losing a huge amount of downforce.
“We then tried to figure out a strategy that could help him make it back up to maximum P4 or P5 max. We pitted him, then pitted him again, to give him more options at the end. But it was damage limitation in the end.”
So, was Rosberg now favourite? Diplomatically, he replied: “No. It is just three out of 21, so statistically there is so much more to come, so you can’t speak about any favourite.”
Hamilton was asked how he felt. “How do you expect me to feel? Obviously the damage on the car had that domino effect,” he said with a philosophical shrug.
“It was a pretty horrifying race. It doesn’t feel any nicer than it did back then [2014, when he also trailed Rosberg before winning the title]. If anything it probably feels worse because it’s just gone one negative after the other.”
Then he brightened when told he was now 36 points behind Rosberg. “Is it 50 points now,” he asked. “Oh, 36, OK. That’s not as bad as I thought. I feel pretty good right now. I thought it was 50 points! Wow.” And suddenly it was happy Hamilton once more.
