McLaren's Lewis Hamilton first win since August

A delighted Lewis Hamilton paid tribute to McLaren's pit team after a tactically perfect race saw him move into second behind Sebastian Vettel in the F1 drivers' championship, while Jenson Button was left to rue his pit-lane blunder. The 26-year-old McLaren driver, world champion in 2008, surged through the field on fresh tires in the closing stages before brilliantly passing the German with less than five laps remaining. The win in Shanghai was the 15th victory of Hamilton's Formula One career and brought Vettel's recent winning streak to an end.
"I'm overwhelmed. There is a long road ahead of us but I’m absolutely over the moon. It feels like a long time since I’ve been sitting here,” said Hamilton, whose previous victory came in Belgium last August.
Hamilton tactically outsmarted the 23-year-old German who had pitted earlier and whose worn-out treads cost him speed in the closing laps.
"A big thumbs up to the guys back at factory, who put their heart into making the car what it is on the GP weekend. It feels amazing," said Hamilton.

De la Rosa back to McLaren

Pedro de la Rosa has rejoined McLaren as the team’s official test and reserve driver. He displaces Gary Paffett to a test and development role that will see the Brit continue to be busy in the simulator. Although a return for de la Rosa was rumored some weeks ago in the Spanish media it seemed unlikely given than Paffett was well established in the third driver role, and that de la Rosa – who recently turned 40 – had an ongoing program with Pirelli.

Presumably the Pirelli job is now set to fade away given that the FIA has confirmed that the teams can conduct tyre development testing on Grands Prix weekends, and thus there is less need for its own program. At one stage Pirelli was even talking about running the Toyota test car on Grand Prix Fridays.