Lewis Hamilton feared that damage to his Mercedes was the reason for his torrid time during the Chinese Grand Prix.

Second in the Sprint seemed a lifetime away for the seven-time world champion who started today's race from 18th and eventually ended the day in ninth, the third time he has finished in that position this season.

Starting the race on softs, one of only four drivers to do so, he was never able to take advantage and subsequently complained that it was "the worst tyre ever".

Having already blamed a needlessly aggressive lock-up for his poor grid position, the Briton also believed a change in set-up after the Sprint didn't help his cause.

"Oh my god, I was the only one, I think, on the soft and it fell apart after lap one," he said of his opening stint. "It was very difficult.

"At the beginning I thought tapped someone because I have never had so much understeer," he added, "I was turning in at slow speed and waiting, waiting, waiting. I thought I had damaged something like some of the others because there was debris everywhere at one point but it was just the set-up that I chose.

"With better decisions on set-up, maybe we would be around where George is," he sighed, "but we just have to keep fighting.

"Ultimately, I made a bad set-up change to the car yesterday and I paid the price for it," he admitted. "I plan to make sure I don't do that in the future."

"Lewis' race wasn't easy as he didn't gain much off the line on the soft tyre," explained Andrew Shovlin. "He then got stuck in a traffic jam on the inside line around Turn 2 and lost to cars on the wide line.

"We had made some changes to his car after the Sprint and clearly they weren't didn't improve the car," he admitted. "It made qualifying and the race difficult.

"He was struggling to turn the car and having to use the power to do so, which was hurting the rear tyres.

"We decided to pit him under the Virtual Safety Car to offset to other cars, but most of our competitors did the same once the Safety Car was deployed.

"We benefitted from a couple of cars dropping out ahead but, considering the early part of the race, it was a relief to get some points."

Check out our Sunday gallery from Shanghai here.