15/04/2018
NEWS STORY
Last week in Bahrain, Lewis Hamilton claimed that poor radio communications with his team during the race had left him in no man's lands.
A week later he was back there again, this time as he and his team struggled, out-powered by Ferrari and out-strategised by Red Bull.
Fighting back after a poor start, like Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton was to fall prey to the charging Red Bull duo in the latter stages, though the time penalty handed to Max Verstappen for his clash with the German was to eventually promote him to fourth.
In the wake of a race which saw Mercedes fail to win three successive races since the new hybrid formula was introduced in 2014, the Briton admitted that things have to change.
"I was in no man's land. I had no pace," he admitted. I was just trying to hold on for whatever I had.
"Obviously we've got a tough battle ahead of us, particularly on my side," he continued. "I'll say my side, but also us as a team, we've been underperforming. Yesterday and today have been a disaster on my side, so I've got to try and rectify that and get myself back into normal performance mode. Otherwise more valuable points will be lost.
"I'm thankful for a couple of incidents that happened ahead today, that kept us kind of in the battle," he added, no doubt referring to the fact that a painful race for Vettel saw the German's championship lead cut to nine points.
Teammate Valtteri Bottas, who lost out on what looked to be a certain win after Mercedes failed to react to the safety car, finished second, which allowed his team to re-take the lead in the team standings.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Shanghai, here.