SHANGHAI (AP) Defending F1 champion Lewis Hamilton feels he has a “dark cloud” over him after his early-season struggles continued with a disappointing seventh-place finish at the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday, but the Mercedes driver is trying to stay positive with a long season ahead of him.
After dominating Formula One for much of the past two seasons, Hamilton has now failed to win in six straight races – his longest drought since 2013. His seventh-place finish in Shanghai is also his worst performance in a race that he’s completed since the Brazilian Grand Prix at the end of 2013.
Hamilton’s troubles have come as his teammate, Nico Rosberg, has surged to the top, winning the past six races to take a 36-point lead over Hamilton in the drivers’ standings this season – 75 to 39.
It’s a large deficit to make up, but not as daunting as Hamilton initially thought.
“I thought it was 50 points,” he said with a laugh after the race.
Hamilton also trailed Rosberg by 29 points midway through the 2014 season and was able to win six of the final seven races to capture the championship. He said it might be harder to do the same this year, but hopefully not impossible.
“It doesn’t feel any nicer than it did back then. If anything, it feels worse perhaps now because it’s obviously just gone one negative after the other,” Hamilton said. “But, of course, there’s a long, long way to go. A lot’s going to happen. It’s just that I have no more jokers available, really.”
Hamilton’s season hasn’t lacked for drama. At the Australian Grand Prix, he got off to a poor start and finished runner-up to Rosberg. Then, at the Bahrain Grand Prix, there was another poor start and a collision with Valtteri Bottas at the first corner that left him with a damaged gearbox and a third-place finish.
On Saturday in Shanghai, Hamilton picked up a five-place grid penalty for making an early gearbox change, then failed to set a time in qualifying after a separate problem with his power unit, relegating him to the last row for the race.
Another collision in the first lap Sunday damaged the front wing of his car and led to the first of five pit stops for the British driver.
“Definitely never felt the dark cloud I’ve had over me right now,” Hamilton said. “Of course, it’s a trying time. For sure, lots of different emotions and thoughts are going through my mind. As you see the season start the wrong way, you see a championship which your goals and your eyes are focused on move further away from you as you’re approaching it.
“But this is a part of motor racing. If we fail this weekend, we’ll get up and try harder the next time.”
The focus of the Detroit Monster Energy Supercross round was on the mid-pack battle while Aaron Plessinger pulled away from the field, but when he crashed after hooking his foot in the dirt, the results once more looked like we’ve come to expect, with Chase Sexton, Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac sharing the podium for the fifth time in 10 rounds.Justin Barcia was part of an exciting, four-rider battle in the middle of Detroit’s A-Main. – Feld Motor Sports
For Sexton, Plessinger’s late-race crash was a vindication of sorts. Several times already this season, Sexton has crashed while battling for the lead and the points that has cost him keeps him sporting the red plate. He lost points in Detroit for a different reason, however.
Sexton was allowed to keep the win, but was penalized seven points for jumping in a red cross section of the course. As a result, he dropped four points to Webb and two to Tomac. Sexton is now 17 points behind Webb in the championship hunt.
One week after snatching the red plate from Tomac for the first time in 2023, Webb stretched his advantage by two. With his second-place finish, Webb holds a three-point lead over Tomac, which essentially means both riders control their fate in the coming weeks. Webb continues to have a sweep of the top five this season with his sixth consecutive podium.
Coming off his worst finish of the season, Tomac rebounded to finish third. His eighth-place result last week was partially attributed to a stiff neck that hindered him in traffic and he still suffered some of those same effects in Detroit. Before Plessinger’s crash, he was destined to be the only rider in the three-man title scrum to finish off the podium in Detroit.
It is surprising what one position can do for one’s confidence.
Justin Barcia scored his fourth top-five of the season. He was part of the exciting four-man battle that dominated the middle stages of the race before Sexton and Webb gained a little separation. Finishing less than three seconds behind Tomac, he kept that rider honest for the entire race.
Coming off his first win of the season, Ken Roczen finished fifth. It was his seventh top-five of the season and it elevated him to fifth in the standings.
Hunter Lawrence tied his brother Jett Lawrence with 10 wins each after another dominating ride in the Detroit Supercross race and the results in the points continue to widen. With his fifth win in six rounds and a worst finish of third, Lawrence now has a 35-point advantage over Nate Thrasher with four rounds remaining. Finishes of 14th or better in the final four mains will give him his first 250 championship.
Strong starts have been one of the keys to Hunter Lawrence’s success in 2023. – Feld Motor Sports
Jett will have an opportunity to retake his wins’ lead as Supercross heads west for the next two rounds in Seattle and Glendale, Arizona.
Nate Thrasher earned his third second-place finish of the season with a gap of 7.6 seconds to Lawrence. He won the overall in Arlington earlier this season, but a 15th-place finish in the opening round in Houston and 10th in Daytona hurts his championship chances.
Haiden Deegan scored his second podium and fourth top-five in six rounds of his young career. On his way to that finish, he rode aggressively against his teammate Jordon Smith in the heat race. Fans are getting a glimpse of what his on-track personality might be.
Jeremy Martin continues to be the model of consistency. He has not finished worse than sixth or better than fourth in six rounds now and that has allowed him to close to within two points of third in the 250 East championship standings.
Max Anstie entered the race weekend second in the points, but a hard crash in heavy traffic early in the main forced him to retire after two laps. Earning only one point for the round, he plummeted to fifth in the standings.
The news was worse for Smith, who was dropped out of the top nine in his heat after the altercation with Deegan and failed to advance through the LCQ. In the last chance race, he stalled his engine and had to mount a determined charge. He got only as high as seventh in that race after crashing while attempting to make a pass on fourth-place Jack Chambers.
