CHINESE GP – Max Verstappen dominantly wins thirteen seconds ahead of Lando Norris
Max Verstappen put in another dominant victory beating Lando Norris by thirteen seconds to win the Chinese Grand Prix. The Dutchman drove another race of perfection controlling the race from the start as he took his fifth win of the season.
Verstappen had the race under control and fended off Norris at both restarts, the McLaren driver ran a long opening stint and over cut Sergio Perez and deny Red Bull a one-two finish. That was despite two safety cars but the Verstappen express couldn’t be derailed as he managed to pull away at both restarts.
The world champion converted his pole position into a lead at the first corner while Perez was passed around the outside by Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, which started third. In that opening stint, he built a ten second lead over his teammate, giving both Red Bull’s a free pit stop.
That left Perez in a race-long battle with Norris once he had passed Charles Leclerc following his stop, but towards the closing laps the Mexican had dropped too far behind given the brilliant second stint by Norris which allowed him to build a six second lead and spilt the Red Bull’s.
It took Perez until lap five to pass Alonso, by which time Verstappen was five seconds up the road. Perez had looked to be on course for second but two safety cars changed the race. The first caused by Valtteri Bottas pulled off with an engine failure at Turn Eleven on lap twenty, and there will be questions as to how long it took the race director to deploy first the virtual safety car and then the safety car with marshals on the track trying to remove the car.
The second safety car followed when Yuki Tsunoda crashed into the back of Kevin Magnussen on the restart. Leclerc had better pace than Perez, creating the question whether Perez could catch and pass both Leclerc and Norris to reclaim the one-two.
Leclerc was passed quickly, but Norris was more than able to match the Red Bull’s pace, and he held on to take an excellent second place ahead of Perez.
Key in the McLaren-Ferrari battle was a midrace safety car caused by Valtteri Bottas that allowed the McLaren to use a one-stop and keep the advantage over Perez and both Ferrari’s. Leclerc was caught and passed by Verstappen following the first stop when the safety car came out after Bottas stopped with engine failure.
That was despite the Monacan losing two places at the start after trying to fend off teammate Carlos Sainz, in the process also losing position to George Russell and Nico Hulkenberg. But he soon found his feet during that stint creating the opportunity for a one-stop.
But he would ultimately lose out on track position to Norris and Perez also stopping under the safety car, with Leclerc finishing four and a half seconds behind Perez and ten seconds clear of Sainz.
Verstappen’s world championship lead over Perez to twenty-five points and keeps the Dutchman on course to seal a fourth successive drivers’ title. Red Bull’s advantage over Ferrari at the top of the constructors’ standings grows to forty-four points, with McLaren a further fifty-five points back in third.
Verstappen said, “It felt amazing I think all weekend we were incredibly quick and it was just enjoyable to drive, every single compound as well, the restarts I think we survived that well. These kinds of weekends are of course amazing to feel and to achieve basically what we did this weekend is fantastic.”
Norris added, “I’m surprised, I’m very happy, very happy for the team. Good pit stops, today it worked out, I don’t know how, I wasn’t really expecting it. I got comfortable, I managed the tyres, It’s a lot easier task than yesterday. I could just push the car and it felt great and comfortable so good day, good points and another podium, so very happy.”
. George Russell was sixth the Mercedes driver nearly five seconds behind Sainz and ahead of Fernando Alonso by five seconds.
The Spaniard used another interesting strategy, he ran very deep not stopping until twelve laps to go switching to mediums dropping him to twelfth, before he carved his way back to seventh. Alonso passed Esteban Ocon, Hulkenberg, Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri to seventh, thirteen seconds behind Piastri.
But Alonso had invertedly allowed Hamilton and Piastri to briefly close up and though he fended them off they couldn’t close the ten-second gap. But eighth for Piastri a decent result given the loss in performance which would have been caused by the collision.
He had been the incident party in the first restart after the concertina effect saw Lance Stroll go into the back of Daniel Ricciardo then into the back of the McLaren. Hamilton finished ninth as he struggled for pace in the race as he recovered from eighteenth to ninth two and a half seconds ahead of Hulkenberg.
The five-time winner in Shanghai spent the first part complaining about lacking pace, but with the help of the safety cars managed to haul himself up into the points in ninth, even if sixth and ninth amounted to another chastening day for Mercedes.
Hulkenberg took the final point to continue Haas’s strong start to the season in the battle of the lower midfield. He finished ahead of Ocon, Alex Albon spilt the two Alpine’s three seconds behind the Frenchman and ahead of Pierre Gasly.
Guanyu Zhou finished his first home race fourteenth, the Sauber driver comfortably ahead of Lance Stroll by over ten seconds. Zhou told Sky Sports “I drove my heart out today, unfortunately not enough for the points but we go again next time. I am just so happy to see the whole crowd. No words. A mixture of emotions and a day to remember.”
Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant were the final classified finishers, the Haas driver eight and a half seconds ahead of the Williams.
Related
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