Max Verstappenovercame two Safety Car periods to pull away from his rivals behind and win the Chinese Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris.
Verstappen extended his lead in the championship by securing 33 points from the Shanghai weekend, finishing 13 seconds ahead of Norris by the end of the race.Sergio Perez claimed the final podium position in third ahead of the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr.
Verstappen led from the start and held his lead through two mid-race Safety Car periods. Perez had run in second place behind his team mate for the first half of the race but dropped down to fourth when rivals took advantage of the Safety Car to fit hard tyres to run to the end of the race.
Perez managed to pass Leclerc to take back fourth place but could not hunt down Norris for second. Leclerc finish four seconds from the Red Bull driver in fourth with Sainz ten seconds behind his team mate in fifth. George Russell was sixth ahead of Fernando Alonso in seventh, who pitted late in the race after taking the Safety Car restart on soft tyres. Oscar Piastri was eighth ahead of Lewis Hamilton in ninth, with Nico Hulkenberg claiming the final point in tenth but is under investigation.
Valtteri Bottas retired from contention for Sauber’s first points of the season when he suffered an apparent power unit problem 20 laps into the race, stopping on track at turn 11 and prompting a Virtual Safety Car which was upgraded to a full Safety Car a lap later.
Both RB drivers were effectively eliminated in the space of eight corners at the restart as Daniel Ricciardo was hit by Lance Stroll at the hairpin, damaging his car to excess, while Yuki Tsunoda was hit by Kevin Magnussen at turn six, putting him out. Both Stroll and Magnussen were handed ten second time penalties by the stewards.
Pierre Gasly will also be investigated by the stewards after the race for being released from his pit box in an unsafe condition. An Alpine mechanic at Gasly’s right-rear wheel was knocked over when Gasly was dropped off the jacks in the pit box, however Alpine confirmed that no one had been hurt in the incident.
Nico Hulkenberg and Ricciardo were also summoned to the stewards’ office after the race over a Safety Car infringement.
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2024 Chinese Grand Prix
- Aston Martin fail in bid to have Alonso’s Shanghai penalty reviewed
- Mercedes cleared over Hamilton pit stop infraction as ‘nearly all teams in breach’
- Aston Martin petitions FIA to review Alonso’s penalty for Sainz collision
- “You need to be more on it”: 12 unheard radio exchanges from the Chinese GP
- Ricciardo needs to show “head-turning form” for 2025 chance – Horner
Jere (@jerejj)
21st April 2024, 10:04
Race control once again took unnecessarily long to activate the VSC, despite Bottas’ car clearly being in the firing line & not moving anywhere soon.
Not the fastest point, but still risky in case of a sudden brake failure for someone.
Clumsiness by both Stroll & Magnussen as well as Sargeant to a lesser extent.
Good strategy by Mclaren, although he could’ve stopped from the same lap as Leclerc had the VSC call been quicker, but fortunately for them, it didn’t cost a top 3 finish.
Nick T.
21st April 2024, 10:09
SC absolutely ruined what could have been a much more exciting race.
Leclerc, Norris and Perez would have been glued together.
After them, you would have seen Russell, Sainz and a non-damaged Piastri trying to catch Alonso for 5th.
And finally, you may have seen Stroll, Hulk and Ricciardo battling for 9th and 10th.
Norris and Alonso overachieved (FA likely a comfortable 5th without the SC). Max looked imperious. Sainz looked very mediocre and Hamilton is nowhere without the SCs. Hulkenberg delivered massively again, especially when compared with the hopeless Magnussen.
Logan’s penalty was ridiculous, but I hope they replace him in-season.
Jere (@jerejj)
21st April 2024, 10:25
I don’t really see how Logan’s penalty is ridiculous when he clearly overtook Hulk despite having been behind on the SC line.
Otherwise, I agree with you on everything.
Riccard
21st April 2024, 10:47
In your view he ‘clearly’ was behind at the safety car line and then overtook. Personally though, on my first look at real-time speed, I couldn’t tell.
Sargeant pitted on the next lap and the field was compressed, so essentially
– Sargeant had no way to know who was meant to be ahead, and no time for the stewards to tell him
– There was no impact
I would rather the stewards could have discretion to waive the penalty in that kind of situation.
AlanD
21st April 2024, 14:55
I agree it is impossible to know,. It seems to me that during a SC situation like this, it would be simple enough to have someone in race control looking at the SC line and telling cars immediately to swap places. F1 should focus more on making the racing as smooth as possible, and less on how they can penalise drivers.
PeterG
21st April 2024, 11:11
I thought Logan’s was another ridiculous penalty in a long list of ridiculous penalties we are suffering this year.
It was marginal at the line & looking for Logan & Hulkenberg’s onboard cameras it was difficult to tell who was ahead (Nico even said he didn’t know who was ahead). And then he pitted at the end of the lap anyway so he never remained ahead so nothing was gained.
Was a penalty where common sense went completely out of the window.
Nick T.
21st April 2024, 16:13
It was like a photo finish across the line. What do they expect drivers to do let alone know if they were behind or in front? Clearly, this is a case where, like in the old days, they’d get over the radio and tell Logan to switch positions.
F1 was penalty crazy this week. Some were clearly merited, but many were a mockery.
MacLeod (@macleod)
22nd April 2024, 8:23
@jerejj – Clearly in front that wasn’t viewable by the drivers of even the teams. What the teams should do was asking RC if their drivers was in front as they couldn’t see it. And act on that.
Even F1TV couldn’t produce the pictures fast enough either…
But your right the teams should ask and they didn’t so the penaulty was ok.
claudioff (@claudioff)
21st April 2024, 10:15
Stroll: This idiot braked hard on the curve and accelerated on the straight. Does he not understand how racing works?
BLS (@brightlampshade)
21st April 2024, 10:17
I’m not really sure Verstappen overcame anything. Yes he drove impeccably but the result was never in doubt.
I’m also not entirely sure what Hamilton did to end up in the running for driver of the day.
Maybe I’m just a grump today.
earthling (@34rthl1ng)
21st April 2024, 10:26
Taking advantage of retirements and highway overtakes on much slower cars, yeah great merit
Riccard
21st April 2024, 10:49
Yeah, Hamilton watched while Bottas’ car broke and Stroll/Ricciardo/Piastri/Magnussen/Tsunoda were involved in crashes.
No surprise he made up a bunch of places under those circumstances.
w0o0dy
21st April 2024, 11:03
Hamilton looked absolutely weak and mediocre. No way anyone other than the most die hard fans would vite for that performance. Battling Williams and Haas in a Mercedes.. shameful.
MadMax (@madmax)
21st April 2024, 13:15
Well, not that much orange bias in china.
DaveW (@dmw)
21st April 2024, 16:38
Hamiltons work tbh was no better or worse than Verstappen in their relative circumstances. A day’s work. But people get into a sport by picking a team or athlete and then stanning for them no matter what and do so deeming it an act of personal virtue. That’s human nature. F1 is traditionally a bit different because it’s a technical and organizational enterprise as much as a sporting one but casuals can’t get into that. Gatekeeping operation over thanks everyone.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st April 2024, 18:40
I wouldn’t go as far as saying hamilton did the same job as verstappen, but basically the reason for the very different results are: 1) red bull is atm a dominant car and mercedes isn’t even well placed among the B teams, 2) qualifying mistake that let hamilton start very far back.
I didn’t think hamilton did a horrible job today, but also it’s not like verstappen had to do a lot.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st April 2024, 18:40
reasons*
Moi
21st April 2024, 11:39
Well he did have a double digit lead wiped away – twice. In the end his pace advantage was such that it didn’t matter, but it still happened.
Agree on Hamilton, got very lucky to finish in the points at all.
Mayrton
21st April 2024, 15:18
Apparently the majority of viewers are no longer an audience that know much about the sport. They saw him (which is a superstar and well known name) starting at the back and ending at the front hence overtakes hence driver of the day. Liberty is almost where they want to be in their pursuit of the casual viewer I guess.
Nick T.
21st April 2024, 16:14
His tires had the longevity that the SC posed zero threat.
Nick T.
21st April 2024, 16:31
Max is amazing, but how many times did we see Lewis have identical races to this during the Mercedes run, Seb in 2013, Schumacher in 2004, Prost at Williams, etc. When you have a dominant car, the best pit crew by a mile, no dirty air, no pressure from behind, a wing man, etc., this is what’s expected.
Maybe, the title should have been “Safety Cars fail to impact RBR strategy as Max cruises to another dominant win.” The only driver hurt by the safety car was FA. Seems like AM should have planned to run medium medium hard instead of medium hard medium, which increased the chances of a safety car before halfway really hurting him.
Craig
21st April 2024, 23:43
I don’t think Vestappen’s overcome anything, his success has more or less always been handed to him. That’s not me saying he’s bad as he’s had some excellent performances, but between rules changing on the fly in 2021 and Red Bull cheating to give themselves a far superior car in this budget cap era that no one can do anything to catch you can’t say he’s had to work hard at all. Certainly at this point if things do start going consistently wrong for him I can see him falling apart completely with no idea how to handle it.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
22nd April 2024, 1:56
@brightlampshade Entirely agree that LH did little more than to bring his car where it should have been given the starting position. A couple of places more would have been praiseworthy.
That said, I don’t feel he did anything to reflect negatively on himself either, but he wouldn’t have got my driver of the day.
Max is becoming difficult to rate. He is clearly a fantastic driver, but is he managing to get the margins he does because he driving so much better than the other top performing drivers on the day, or would those drivers be getting the Red Bull into a similar position. The comparison to Perez tends to suggest the former, in which case surely MV is hands down DOTD but we really don’t know for sure. Perez has indeed had some good drives in his career, though not entirely consistent, but I feel convinced even he should be placing higher in that car.
Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
21st April 2024, 10:18
Absolutely agree that the only challenges for Max today were the restarts.
earthling (@34rthl1ng)
21st April 2024, 10:44
Well for the best driver in the best car with strategically the best team and with a weak teammate, things are way too easy.. Let’s hope in Monaco and Singapore we can watch a bit more of challenge but I assume 22 race wins this year )all but Melbourne and Singapore) and all the sprints btw
ChrisJ (@chriju0411)
21st April 2024, 11:02
On paper, yes. But in reality he pulled 1.5 seconds to second place in the first sector alone both times.
MadMax (@madmax)
21st April 2024, 13:17
Exactly. Car performance would have allowed to lap the whole field without SC and without cruising to hide the real car dominance
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st April 2024, 18:42
If they were hiding car dominance, they did a really bad job, we could all see how much gap he could pull in 1 lap.
MadLewis
22nd April 2024, 16:12
Just like Merc’s cars 2014-2021.
Yellow Baron
21st April 2024, 19:17
That’s a stretch. Most if that was on the restart itself not in the actual driving
RH
21st April 2024, 10:30
Good strategy by McLaren, outdid Red Bull and Perez’s lack of decisiveness with Leclerc cost the team a 1-2 in the end. Lando threw away a P2 yesterday afterall. He drove well today but did get some luck with the SC.
Alonsos race was somehow the most interesting thing for me. This one was a better race than the other 4 so far.
Sainz very poor, Russell in no man’s land and so on. Piastri I expected him to beat Lando but on Sundays he is nowhere.
earthling (@34rthl1ng)
21st April 2024, 10:49
Carlos Sainz I’d say was just decent but seems to have lost his mojo, he was being very superior to Charles Lecrec until this weekend. Lando Norris was the most fortunate with the SC (I without it Checo Perez would have surely beaten him) and Fernando Alonso the most unfortunate, however it made for a weird strategic decision with the softs and a terrific final change, too bad the softs were already cooked when it was time to pick up Georgie
Retep
21st April 2024, 11:07
Alonso’s tyre strategy was “interesting”, I fail to see how switching to softs that early in the race could have benefited him. Did Aston Martin hire last year’s Ferrari strategist?
Piastri had car damage, though even without that I don’t think he would’ve beaten Noris.
Nick T.
21st April 2024, 16:18
That tire strategy wasn’t intentional or a gamble. It was bad luck. He was 5-6 laps into his stint on his one and only set of hards (the best tire for AM) and only had 1 new mediums and 2 new softs left when the SC came out. So, there was no way he was going to get to the end on those…however, AM didn’t think he’d be so disadvantaged by yet another SC coming and doing so many unnecessary laps. Had they know that, they would have gambled on getting mediums to the end.
It cost him 5th place. No way are Sainz and Russell finishing ahead if not for the SC. It’s standard FA luck.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
21st April 2024, 10:48
I don’t want to boil the race down to just the stewarding and I’m aware the past few days I have been referencing them a lot in the comments sections. But I just don’t understand some of the decisions being made recently.
Yesterday we had a red flag decided with 10s of a car spinning. Today a car was stranded in the run off and it was 2 mins before a VSC was deployed. We know that if marshals have to cross the barrier it’s a VSC. How else could that car possibly be moved without a VSC? That’s an immediate inconsistency and I’d argue the stewards were too fast to make one decision and too slow another.
When it comes to judging wheel to wheel battles, Alonso yesterday gets 10s for a genuine move not assisted by Sainz staying in at the apex. A racing incident if I’ve ever seen one. Today Magnussen lazily and clumsily smashes into Yuki, causing an instant DNF – 10s. That can’t be right.
Furthermore, Stroll damages 2 cars, one a direct retirement, the other car finishing 2 places lower than it should, during a safety period and that’s also 10s. Careless, out of control, dangerous – 10s.
Both incidents to me are worse than Australia-gate, where no contact occured – yet that was 20s. As I’ve stated before, I don’t think that’s a penalty, but assuming that one does – how is it twice the punishment of ruining 2 drivers races under the SC?
I just can’t understand the logic here. If you remove the 5 second rule, which I campaigned against for years, you have to change the severity levels of each infringement. Now all contact is 10s but the entirely subjective ‘erratic’ is 20s? Make this make sense.
AlexS
21st April 2024, 10:55
It seems stewards are supposed to be on propose to be even more irregular as Pirelli tires.
BMW P85 V10
21st April 2024, 16:30
Sometimes it looks to me that the Stewards make irratic decisions for the purpose of shaking up the field to create “more exiting” races.
Safety car deployment and time penalties seem to be pulled out of the hat randomly.
Sumedh
21st April 2024, 10:51
Ferrari need to do a good talking to it’s drivers. They gifted away place to Russell at the start and somehow lost out to Hulkenburg as well.
Good work to go from 8th / 9th to 4th / 5th, but should have never been 8th and 9th to begin with.
PeterG
21st April 2024, 11:15
That penalty for Logan Sargeant was really ridiculous.
It was super marginal as to who was ahead at the SC line & even Nico Hulkenberg came over the radio to say he couldn’t tell which of them was ahead.
But then Logan pitted at the end of that lap anyway so nothing was gained.
Had Logan stayed out & gained something from it then a penalty would clearly be fair but in this case I think some common sense could have been used as no penalty was necessary.
Nick T.
21st April 2024, 16:24
Beyond idiotic. They showed flexibility and fairness IMO to Norris (and IMO, the right thing in terms of spirit). But if they’re going to be that by the book with zero room for black and white, then Norris should have had this sprint quali lap taken away.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
21st April 2024, 14:47
fastest car on the grid in a straight line overcomes two safety cars to win the race ? that might mean something if Max had a “flat battery”
Janith
21st April 2024, 16:35
Perez is horrible OMG. How can this guy not win a single race for over a year now in one of the best F1 cars ever while his teammate has won like 30 races(almost all of them)?
miciek (@micio)
21st April 2024, 18:40
It’s because F1 allows such unequal driver pairings.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st April 2024, 18:54
Said like this is a pretty bad look, though we have to consider that verstappen is an ace and incredibly consistent to most other top drivers I’ve seen, so he doesn’t really give many chances to take wins from him, however if verstappen is unbeatable for anything but a top driver, which is a safe assumption, then any 2nd place is the realistic max for perez.
In that sense he hasn’t been that bad this year, the race where he ended 5th red bull was unusually bad and even verstappen might not have won and this race it’s obviously not good to end up behind norris, but norris is a better driver than perez in one of the best cars, so not unreasonable.
I think there’s not a lot of drivers in f1 atm who could take wins from verstappen as team mates.
Janith
21st April 2024, 19:12
If you can’t win a single race in this car it is an absolutely horrible season. Other teams and drivers doesn’t even matter. This Red Bull is in a league of its own.
Verstappen already had a mishap race this year and Perez was no way near the win in that race. So he can’t use that trump card either
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
22nd April 2024, 2:09
@esploratore1
I would agree. And it is such a shame we are being deprived of this being played out. As a supporter of the Formula it’s hard to blame Red Bull for developing a superior car. And of course it clearly works for them to maintain a number 2 driver that is good enough to add some points but not threaten Max. But there is no doubt it would be a vastly improved spectacle if they put a genuine contender in the number 2 seat. Other teams improving w9ould be even better, but is a much less easy ‘fix’ (for want of a better term).
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st April 2024, 18:54
consistent compared*
Craig
21st April 2024, 23:44
Because Red Bull doesn’t want him to.