Lewis Hamilton put his Ferrari on Sprint pole and took the win, but come Grand Prix Sunday, that performance vanished.

And Chinese Grand Prix winner Lando Norris believes Hamilton had enjoyed the luxury and benefits of escaping dirty air, as he explained how being within three seconds even of a car ahead causes problems.

Lewis Hamilton Chinese GP pace drop: Dirty air to blame?

Additional reporting by Pablo Hidalgo

After his Sprint pole and victory from lights to flag, Hamilton was unable to keep the momentum going into qualifying and the race, qualifying P5, just under three-tenths off polesitter and Norris’ McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, before crossing the line P6.

Hamilton’s day would go from bad to worse after the chequered flag when he, Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly were all disqualified from the results, Hamilton due to excessive plank wear and Leclerc because his Ferrari was 1kg underweight, while Gasly’s Alpine was also underweight.

Norris would follow Piastri across the line in a McLaren one-two finish, nursing his MCL39 to the end as a brake pedal problem set in, while Mercedes’ George Russell completed the podium.

And as Norris explained the difficulties he had trying to pull away from Russell with Piastri ahead, he made reference to how Hamilton had not needed to deal with any dirty air in the Sprint.

“As we saw yesterday, Hamilton in the lead was fast,” said Norris. “It’s easier when you’re leading because you don’t have dirty air and have more grip. That makes the race easier.

“It might sound far, but even at three seconds you start to feel that effect.

“To pull away from George I had to push in dirty air, and when you’re doing a one-stop, you wonder whether the tyres will last. I felt like my pace was really good but I couldn’t push as much as I wanted.”

Nonetheless, Norris was able to secure that runner-up result and remain at the top of the early Drivers’ Championship standings.

“Crazy. It was a good race, really,” Norris added.

“A long race because we were expecting a two-stop strategy. Switching to one stop because the hard tyre worked very well caught us a bit by surprise. It was a long second stint, but a very good race.

“Getting another one-two finish is exactly what we wanted. My pace was really good too, we made many improvements since the Sprint Race and the balance was much more where I wanted it. My pace was stronger, I felt more confident, and we got good points.”

F1 2025 head-to-head standings

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👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

While Norris’ explanation on the dirty air impact at the Chinese GP could explain Hamilton’s struggles to replicate his Sprint form, the seven-time World Champion instead pointed to set-up changes made to the SF-25 as the cause for that decline.

“I’m glad that we tried, I’m glad that we tried something,” he told Sky F1. “I was struggling with performance.

“Basically, we had a pretty decent car in the sprint, and then we made some changes, because we’re trying to move forward and improve the car, and we made it quite a bit worse going into qualifying, and then it was even worse in the race.

“So unfortunate, but very, very hard to keep up with the guys ahead. But lots to learn.

“The pit stop is too long here, it’s a lot of seconds to catch up, and they were still going fast at the end, like Max was doing something similar to me, and I had much fresher tyres, so wasn’t great.”

Put to him that Ferrari had apparently raised the ride height of the SF-25, Hamilton added: “I don’t know who said that we lifted the car, but no. We made some other changes mostly, as well as that, but not massively, it’s like small amounts.

“But all the pieces together made it quite a bit worse.

“Charles tested something in Bahrain, and I hadn’t tested it but we both went that way, and it was mad [laughs]. I know not to do that again.”

Ferrari sit P5 in the Constructors’ standings, already 61 points behind leaders McLaren.

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