In the first of back-to-back Grand Prix weekends, the third race of the season will take place in Bahrain next weekend.
Following his performance at the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix, his team boss Toto Wolff said that when Hamilton is at his best he is in a different league.
The triple world champion lapped the 5.4-kilometre long circuit in one minute, 31.678 seconds in his Mercedes, edging Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel by 0.186 seconds.
The result puts him level on points with Sebastian Vettel at this early stage in the battle for the 2017 Drivers' title with the Ferrari driver - who won the opener in Australia two weeks ago - coming home second and Red Bull's Max Verstappen third.
Lewis Hamilton (44) leads the field in the first lap of the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix.
Kimi Raikkonen was fifth in the other Ferrari, just ahead of Hamilton's colleague Valtteri Bottas.
Join The Quint on WhatsApp. When Vettel finally got past Raikkonen he made the move on Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo that the Finn had been unable to do while showing the car's pace was clearly a match for the world champions. This was his record fifth win in China. A short time later later, on the fourth lap, Antonio Giovinazzi hit a wet patch and slammed into the wall, severely damaging his Sauber auto and bringing the race to a halt again.
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However both Vettel and Hamilton stayed out on track on intermediates.
"It is going to be one of the closest championships, if not the closest I've personally ever experienced", proclaimed Hamilton, 32, who is relishing his battle with Vettel, three years his junior, this year. The Canadian beached his Williams in the gravel, bringing out the virtual safety auto.
Eighteen races remain of the season, and Hamilton and Vettel now lead the championship with 43 points. He was fine but the real safety vehicle was called.
Vettel's hopes of catching Hamilton in China were hampered by the appearance of the safety vehicle after Sauber's Antonio Giovinazzi crashed, which allowed Hamilton to pit for a tyre change without losing ground.
"Then we chose to change tyres since the track was quickly drying out, so that we could take advantage from the slicks; but luck was not on our side as the safety vehicle came in right after".
Speaking after the race about Raikkonen's form, Marchionne told reporters: "I talked about this with [team boss] Maurizio [Arrivabene]". The Finn has failed to finish on the podium in both races this season despite Ferrari clearly having a vehicle to match Mercedes at the front of the grid.
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