Max Verstappen was faultless yet again, cruising to another victory, but the Chinese GP belongs to Lando Norris, who takes an impressive second place for McLaren

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Start

Max Verstappen started in pole at the Chinese GP and remined in the lead pulling out a 2.5 second lead by the end of lap three. Behind the Redbull Driver Sergio Perez was passed by the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard taking the longer route, round the outside at turn one which allowed him to take the inside line for turn two.

Further down the order, Lewis Hamilton who qualified in 18th was struggling to make up places even with the soft, faster tire.

Fernando and his attempts to keep second lasted only a few laps, Sergio passed the Aston to take up second and back to a Redbull 1-2.

it was clear that the battle will be for the remaining podium with Lando Norris looking fast and chasing down the Aston, unfortunately for Fernando the McLaren was just a bit faster taking the final podium spot with a move at the hairpin.

The first round of the pitstops started around lap 10 the drivers getting rid of the softs tires much to the relief of Hamilton who had no pace on the soft tire.

With the majority of the field pitting for a fresh set of boots, Ferrari and McLaren started to think of changing to a 1 stop strategy, which could split the Redbulls. Its was clear that the Chinses GP could spark into life at the final stint.

Virtual Safety Car – Safety Car

The VSC was deployed on lap 21 after Bottas’s Sauber retired with an engine issue, this sparked the pit lane into life as a pit stop under the VSC saves the driver quite a few seconds.

The race was turned on its head as the VSC was turned into a full Safety Car, completely negating Verstappen’s 20 second gap from second place.

Safety Car Re-Start

The restart didn’t effect the front runners, the same couldn’t be said for some of the drivers further down the order as Lance Stroll was caught out with the slower runners, the Canadian driver ended up hitting the rear of Danny Ricciardo‘s RB, both cars ended up with substantial damage effectively ruining both their races.

Due to the damage sustained in the incident Danny retired a few laps after the restart. Lance Stroll was handed a 10 second penalty for causing a collision.

Another incident involving Yuki Tsunoda and Kevin Magnussen, with the HAAS driver sticking his nose down the inside of the RB, the HAAS hit the right rear of the RB spinning Yuki round and out of the race. It was a move that was never on for the HAAS driver. Kevin was handed a 10 second penalty for the “move”

With all the debris on the track the Safety Car returned to the track.

Safety Car Restart 2

The second restart was less dramatic with all cars behaving themselves. Max Verstappen remained in first with the McLaren of Norris second and Charles Leclerc in third.

Finish

As we head into the final 10 laps, Max Verstappen had built up a substantial lead from Lando Norris and Sergio Perez in third. Fernando Alonso, who had started in third had dropped down out of the top ten due to a late pit stop. Aston Martin had decided to put on the soft tire, however this put his out of sync with the field. Fernando came out the pits and set out on his mission to regain the positions lost, Fernando would pass both Hamilton and Piastri on lap 49. Alonso would cross the line in seventh.

Lando Norris who finished in second place, had a great race, keeping the second Redbull car behind, the McLaren team timing their perfectly to help push Lando into a well deserved podium spot.

Sergio Perez completes the top three, a decent result for the Mexican, unfortunately Sergio was a casualty of the Safety Cars, he was unable to catch the McLaren of Lando.

Honourable Mentions

Outside the top three, the Ferrari pair crossed the line with LeClerc and Sainz taking 4th and 5th respectively, it was a decent drive for the Ferrari, however the lack of pace to Redbull and McLaren will be a concern.

Oscar Piastri will be disappointed with eighth, however it was a good result considering the McLaren car had suffered damage from the Ricciardo/Stroll incident earlier in the race, the damage to the floor curtailing any opportunity to push further up the order.

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Mercedes underwhelming season continues with George Russell sixth and Hamilton in ninth, Lewis, who started in eighteenth who managed to get into the points was particularly vocal of the lack of pace of the car especially in the early stages.

Chinese GP Top Ten

1. Verstappen
2. Norris
3. Perez
4. LeClerc
5. Sainz
6. Russell
7. Alonso
8. Piastri
9. Hamilton
10. Hulkenberg

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