|
 While Rosberg has started the season with a perfect 50 points from
two races, and a run of five successive victories dating back to
last November, Hamilton is ready to turn the tables.
The Briton has won four times in Shanghai and is on for three in a
row after last season becoming the only driver to win the race in
successive years.
"It’s not been a smooth start to the season for me, so to be in the
championship position I’m in right now is actually pretty positive,"
said Hamilton, who lies second in the standings after a second and a
third place.
"Now we go to China for the next battle. It's a track that’s been
good to me over the years... so hopefully this race can be the
turning point."
Hamilton has not won since he took his third world championship in
Austin, Texas, last October but the 31-year-old has started both
races this season on pole position.
The decision to abandon a failed new live elimination qualifying
format and revert to the 2015 version from Shanghai onwards is
unlikely to make much difference to Mercedes' domination of the
Saturday session.
While Hamilton is still the bookmakers' favorite, Rosberg has
reasons of his own to be confident.
FIRST WIN
His first Formula One victory came in Shanghai in 2012 and he stands
on the cusp of history with only three other drivers ever putting
together a run of six or more wins in a row -- two of them also
Germans.
Sebastian Vettel managed nine with Red Bull in 2013 and Michael
Schumacher seven with Ferrari in 2004. The other was Italian Alberto
Ascari in the 1950s.
Mercedes have won the last eight races but Hamilton, 17 points
behind Rosberg, is not the only threat to the championship leader.
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Rivals Ferrari have yet to show their true pace, and might have won
earlier without mishap, but Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen can count on
plenty of local support in a country where red is a lucky color.
In Bahrain Vettel did not even start, his Ferrari engine coughing
out plumes of smoke on the formation lap, but there will have been
plenty of work back at the factory since then.
"We are pushing very hard and we know that we can still improve,”
Vettel said after Bahrain.
Ferrari's most recent winner was Fernando Alonso, in 2013.
Now at McLaren, the Spaniard's participation depends on him passing
a medical on Thursday after being forced to sit out the race in
Bahrain on doctors’ orders following his horrific accident in
Australia.
"While I hope I’ll be back in the cockpit on Friday (for practice),
until I get the all-clear from the doctors to race, whenever that
may be, we cannot assume anything," Alonso said on Tuesday.
Belgian reserve Stoffel Vandoorne, who scored a point on his debut
in Bahrain, remains on stand-by.
(Editing by Alan Baldwin and Clare Fallon)
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