Ted Kravitz thinks Lewis Hamilton made a ‘power play’ versus George Russell in Chinese GP parc ferme

Follow us on Google Discover

Ted Kravitz thinks Lewis Hamilton made a “power play”, as he celebrated Andrea Kimi Antonelli for taking pole for the Chinese Grand Prix while freezing George Russell out.

Mercedes talent Antonelli became the youngest-ever Grand Prix polesitter in F1 history this Saturday after topping qualifying for the Chinese GP by 0.222s over Russell. The 19-year-old is also the first teenager to ever score a pole position, which he secured with a 1:32.064 lap.

Russell suffered issues throughout qualifying in Shanghai, as Mercedes were forced to repair his front wing between Q2 and Q3 before he then suffered battery issues that risked ending his session early. In the end, Russell got one flying lap in Q3 and beat Hamilton to secure P3.

Kimi Antonelli is now the youngest polesitter in F1 history

Is this the moment that a future world champion announced himself?

Comment

Like or Comment

Have your say Sign-in now for free

Lewis Hamilton ‘freezing’ George Russell out while celebrating Andrea Kimi Antonelli surprised Ted Kravitz

Hamilton finished qualifying 0.351s off the pace, as Antonelli scored pole for the Chinese GP in the latest one-two for Mercedes this term. Ferrari will lock out the second row of the grid this Sunday, with Charles Leclerc qualifying in P4 only 0.013s off his teammate’s Q3 lap time.

READ MORE: Five things we learned from Chinese GP qualifying, as Kimi Antonelli got pole

How Hamilton then behaved in parc ferme caught Kravitz’s eye, as the Ferrari racer gleefully embraced the man who replaced him at Mercedes in 2025 but froze out the man he shared the garage with from 2022 to 2024. Kravitz even labelled it a “snippet of Grand Prix history”.

Kravitz said on Sky Sports F1 (14/03, 09:06): “I thought this was really interesting, how Lewis Hamilton acted as the sort of granddaddy, or the daddy, you might say, in a funny way, by putting his arm around Kimi.

“And then it looked like he was kind of freezing out George, with whom he’d had this rather titanic fight with in the Sprint race early on. Lewis has had an interesting relationship with George, hasn’t he? They basically get on, but they are rivals.

“But I just thought that in a body language way, sort of an interesting study of dynamics, I thought that was a little bit of a power play, maybe, from Lewis Hamilton putting his arm around Kimi, being the one there to congratulate him, to be warm with him, and freezing out George in that moment. It was a little snippet of Grand Prix history.”

How Hamilton treated Antonelli compared to Russell as they posed for the post-qualifying pictures in parc ferme was what caught Kravitz’s eye on Saturday. Hamilton had a beaming smile on his face as he embraced Antonelli, while Russell seemed dejected and cast aside.

Russell was naturally rather down straight after qualifying, given that he won the Australian Grand Prix from pole last week and won the F1 Sprint in China from pole earlier on Saturday only to suffer reliability issues in qualifying that likely prevented him from fighting Antonelli.

But it was still rather striking that Hamilton and Antonelli did not interact with Russell while they posed for pictures. Russell simply looked like a spare wheel waiting for it all to be over, as Hamilton cheered Antonelli despite spending three years as his compatriot’s teammate.