Max Verstappen pulled out a winning margin of 13s in Saturday’s Sprint race in Shanghai, despite the Red Bull not getting to the front until halfway through the 19-lap event.
Lewis Hamilton claimed his best result of any race this season in second having taken the lead at the start from pole sitter Lando Norris who was forced wide at the first corner and ended up losing multiple position.
Fernando Alonso looked set to take the remaining podium place but suffered a puncture when challenged by Carlos Sainz, which opened the door for Sergio Perez to take third place by the finish.
There was no imminent sign of the rain that had caused such problems for the drivers in Friday’s Sprint qualifying session. Although the skies over Shanghai were overcast, the track was completely dry as the cars headed for the grid. But the impact of yesterday’s precipitation was still plainly evident in the unusual order they lined up in.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was on pole ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes, while Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was third ahead of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. Carlos Sainz made if five different teams in the top five in the Ferrari alongside Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull. It promised a very interest start and long run down into the first corner to get the 19-lap race underway, with only the top eight earning points at the end of it.
When the lights went out, Hamilton got a great initial start and made a determined bid to get down the inside and sweep Norris wide. He duly took the lead of the race while Norris haemorrhaged further places as he struggled for grip. He found himself down in seventh place in the blink of an eye, finally managing to slot back in right ahead of his team mate Oscar Piastri. Local hero Zhou Guanyu soon moved up to ninth as George Russell recovered to the top ten following his qualifying disappointment after rapidly picking off Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen
Sainz had managed to fight off an early challenge from Perez on the first lap. He then set his sights on making life difficult for Verstappen, who wasn’t making the sort of early progress we had come to expect from the Red Bull. He was complaining about a flat battery and a lack of grip on the cool tyres, which allowed Hamilton and Alonso to pull out a bit of a lead at the front. Perez was also being issued with urgent instructions about changing engine mapping from the Red Bull pit wall.
With the tyres getting up to temperature, Verstappen finally pulled clear of Sainz and then breezed past Alonso for second place. With Hamilton complaining that he had so little grip that he couldn’t turn through the low speed corners, the writing was clearly on the wall. The Mercedes locked up through the hairpin on lap 9 allowing Verstappen to close up and complete the pass down the inside of turn 9 and duly take command of the race on lap 10, quickly leaping two seconds away. Whatever had ailed the RB20 in yesterday’s rain and today’s cool start was clearly no longer an issue.
Hamilton’s focus was now on staying ahead of Alonso to keep second place to the finish. He was helped by Alonso coming under heavy pressure from Sainz. Further back the race was developing into a series of DRS trains with Perez, Leclerc and Norris chugging along behind the Ferrari, all glued together. Further back, Magnussen in eleventh was the cork in the bottle ahead of Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. The only midfield progress to be made at mid-race distance was by Russell on Zhou for ninth.
Despite complaining of engine derating, Leclerc had a try at unsettling Perez, who still had no traction. The Monegasque gave it his best shot around the outside of turn 14 on lap 10, but Perez covered off the move with both having DRS available to them. It was Alonso who was without DRS having lost touch with Hamilton, and this allowed Sainz to strike in turn 6 on lap 16. Alonso tried to counter attack in the following corners, and the pair made side-to-side contact that left the Aston with a puncture forcing him to limp back to pit lane.
The clash released Perez into third. Leclerc pulled off an opportunistic pass on the wounded Sainz, and the pair were followed by the two McLarens of Norris and Piastri with Russell inheriting the final points position from Zhou and Magnussen. But there was no question about the winner of the race with Verstappen crossing the line with a mammoth 13s lead from Hamilton who notched up his first top six finish in any race so far in 2024.
There’s still qualifying to come for tomorrow’s Grand Prix, but the signs are that Verstappen already has Shanghai in the palm of his hand.
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Chinese GP: Huge Sprint win for Verstappen over Hamilton F1i.com.
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