[Cecil Terwilliger]

Remarkable.

How Lewis Hamilton went from 21st to 3rd while only passing four cars:

So how did he do it? Rosberg had started on the medium tyres to give himself the maximum range for the first stint, and thus a better chance of taking advantage of safety cars and so on.

He gained one place through Marcus Ericsson starting from the pitlane, but then he had a very cautious first lap Alonso got ahead and he was last as he arrived on the scene of the first corner incident.

Having passed the spun Vettel (for 20th) and the slowing Raikkonen (19th), Hamilton then took advantage of the Wehrlein/Button incident (moving up to 17th).

Meanwhile, Verstappen and Nasr were also heading for the pits, so despite not actually overtaking a healthy car, Hamilton was already up to 15th at the end of lap one.

He had a fortunate escape when Sainz's tyre exploded just in front of him on the second lap (14th), during which he also passed Kvyat (13th), before gaining another spot when Massa pitted (12th).

He overtook Ocon on lap four (11th), and was in the process of passing Alonso when the safety car came out.

He'd just overtaken Fernando when the safety car was called, says Lowe. He was doing one car at a time, and in fact he had technically overtaken him, but it was right on the point of the safety car, so he gave the place back.

Magnussen's crash had gifted him another spot, so at this point Hamilton was 10th. Then under the safety car Perez, Grosjean and Palmer pitted on lap six (seventh), followed by Bottas and Gutierrez on lap seven.

Thus when the red flag came and the cars filed into the pits he was fifth - and the only drivers he had actually passed on track were Kvyat and Ocon. He could probably not believe his fortune as he prepared for the restart.

Hamilton had a bit more work to do. He passed Alonso for fourth on the second flying lap after the restart, and it then took him some seven laps to get by Hulkenberg for third.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/an...es-811254/?s=1