Alonso and Sainz got stuck and ruined the other’s sprint. Verstappen left everyone again
Dmitry Zakharchenko April 20, 2024, 06:54 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
The highlight of the short race was the four-way fight between the Ferrari drivers, Pérez and Alonso.
This year’s Chinese Grand Prix is unique in many ways: for the first time, new generation cars have arrived on the Shanghai track and the stage itself is contested in an updated format with a sprint. The winner, however, in the sprint was the same as in the rest of the races of the current season…
At the beginning, Lewis Hamilton reacted to the traffic lights much better than Lando Norris: McLaren and Mercedes caught up with him even before the first corner, at the exit of which the former champion pushed his young compatriot off the track. Lando, however, was too aggressive after the missed start and lost his car a bit. Norris eventually fell first to the bottom of the top 5, and then lost to Perez and Leclerc.
Meanwhile, Alonso chased Hamilton, but Verstappen, who was in third, suffered from Sainz’s attacks and was initially unable to catch up to the leading pair. The championship leader also had battery problems. Sainz, Pérez and Leclerc were next, just as they were at the beginning.
George Russell was the most active in the first laps. He was the only one who preferred “soft” to “medium”, but at first the Briton lost a position and was forced to recover. Russell found his rhythm, passed Bottas and Magnussen, but was only in tenth position, while the top eight moved further and further away from George.
On the seventh lap, Verstappen became more active: before the hairpin at the end of the final stretch, the Dutchman, with the help of DRS, overtook Alonso and moved up to second position. At the same time, Hamilton began to have problems in the slow corners and on the eighth lap the Briton locked his wheels while braking at the same hairpin, went too far out of the hairpin and lost all his advantage over Max.
Verstappen did not need a second invitation: on the same long straight, Red Bull overtook the Mercedes with the help of DRS and took the lead in the race. Once on a clean track, Max was a second faster per lap than Hamilton and began to pull away from the pack.
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The main events of the final laps took place in the group behind the leading pair. Sainz took advantage of Alonso’s poor start in turn six to snatch the lead from Aston Martin. Fernando did not give up, the drivers were side by side in the seventh corner and in the eighth there was contact between them.
Pérez and Leclerc took advantage of the fight between Alonso and Sainz and achieved third and fourth place. Meanwhile, Fernando’s tire, damaged in the fight with Sainz, began to deflate, and the leader of the Aston Martin had to go to the pits to change a set of tires, while Carlos himself fell back to fifth place. As a result, Alonso and his team decided to leave altogether.
Max Verstappen crossed the finish line with a lead of 13 seconds, Hamilton was second and Pérez finally completed the top three. Fourth and fifth place went to the Ferrari drivers and in the end, Sainz missed the apex and pushed Leclerc off the track. Charles, however, later managed to pull through. Norris and Piastri finished in sixth and seventh place, while Russell held on to eighth place and ultimately scored a point towards the World Championship.
Qualifying for the main race of the weekend begins on Saturday, April 20 at 10:00 Moscow time.
