Red Bull driver Max Verstappen returned to the top of the order in Saturday’s Sprint race at the Shanghai International Circuit as he transformed his low-key P4 starting position into a resounding victory.
Verstappen steadily moved up the order during the 19-lap encounter, benefiting from pole-sitter Lando Norris’s exit during the first lap and then completing moves on Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lewis’ Mercedes Hamilton.
While Hamilton finished second, a thrilling battle for third finally went Sergio Perez’s way after Alonso suffered a puncture, while Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz feuded, Norris’ McLaren and Oscar Piastri and George Russell – on a daring soft-pneumatic strategy – rounded out the points.
Given the changed format in play for the 2024 season, Friday afternoon’s sprint qualifying session established the 100km grid, during which points would be offered to the top eight finishers – from a maximum of eight for the P1 to one for P8.
It was Norris who started from pole after a stunning lap at the end of a thrilling and rain-soaked SQ3 stage, followed by a trio of world champions who won 12 world titles between them in Hamilton (seven), Alonso (two) and Verstappen (three).
As the cars lined up on the grid and the tire covers came off in the much improved conditions, it was revealed that the vast majority of the field had chosen the medium tyres, with Russell the only driver to have opted for a more aggressive approach on softs. .
As the lights went out, Hamilton came off the line to battle with Norris in Turns 1 and 2, the McLaren driver sliding wide as they rounded the second part of the right-hander and tumbled dramatically. order.
At the end of the first lap, Hamilton led the way ahead of Alonso, Verstappen, Sainz, Perez and Leclerc, with Norris in seventh ahead of teammate Piastri, and local hero Zhou Guanyu sitting just outside the points in ninth after a compromised start for his teammate Valtteri Bottas.
“Why is my battery dead? » Verstappen swore on the radio at this point, as he lost almost two seconds to the Mercedes and Aston Martin machines of Hamilton and Alonso, who were separated by a few tenths as DRS came into play and a fight for the head was announced.
Meanwhile, Hamilton’s teammate Russell made good use of his soft tires to force his way up to 10th with a sharp move on Kevin Magnussen’s Haas at the final hairpin, although he It remained to be seen whether the rubber marked in red would hold up. for the race distance.
At this point, two incidents were noted by the stewards, with a turn 6 moment involving Zhou and Bottas leaving the track and taking the lead, and Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg for forcing another driver off the track. track – both of which were quickly rejected.
At just over a third of the Sprint, Hamilton had built a small margin over Alonso, with around 1.5 seconds now separating the two, as Verstappen worked on his battery gremlins to put some pressure on the man of Aston Martin.
At the end of lap 7, Verstappen slipped into Alonso’s slipstream on the back straight, closed in and made a direct pass into the hairpin for P2, with his sights now on frontman Hamilton, who ominously declared over the radio that “this thing ain’t going to turn.” in low-speed corners.
A lap later, these issues were highlighted when Hamilton ran wide at the hairpin and opened the door for Verstappen, who closed the gap to just half a second as they crossed the line start/finish and were tracking down his old rival for the title in the first sector.
Hamilton was informed of the gap by his engineer as he reached the intermediate sector, prompting a frustrated “leave it to me” radio message, but the Briton could do nothing to stop the Dutchman’s advances, who managed a another overrun in the hairpin.
Verstappen pulled away as he and the RB20 came into their own in the clean air, lapping 1.6 seconds faster than anyone else in the field at the first ask, attention turning to the battles behind as the final rounds were ticking away.
While Hamilton remained comfortable in second, Alonso began to fall into the clutches of Sainz, Perez, Leclerc and Norris, with a thrilling fight developing for that final spot in the top three, while a distant Piastri held the final position at the points on soft starter Russell.
On lap 14, the demolition moved to another level as Leclerc attempted to pass Perez on the outside of the final hairpin, which he repeated a lap later, only to crash heavily at the top and leave positions unchanged.
However, Sainz then attacked Alonso ahead of Turn 6 next time out, with a strong exit from the Ferrari seeing the pair pass side-by-side into Turn 7, where the two Spaniards made contact – allowing Perez to close in and sneak past them. both at turn 8.
Alonso fell back with a puncture following the contact, losing several places in the final sector, with the two Ferraris then coming extremely close at the final hairpin – prompting an angry radio message from the Monegasque – before Sainz pulled away at the corner 2 and his team my companion slipped.
From there, the lead positions remained unchanged, with Verstappen taking victory over Hamilton and Perez, while Leclerc, Sainz, Norris, Piastri and Russell completed the top eight positions and secured the points on offer.
Zhou had to settle for ninth place at the end of his first home race, followed by Magnussen, RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, the other Kick Sauber of Bottas, the leading Alpine of Esteban Ocon and Stroll, who was the only Aston Martin to finish after Alonso stopped and retired.
Pierre Gasly finished 15th in the Alpine runners-up, while Yuki Tsunoda (RB), Williams drivers Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant and Haas’ Hulkenberg completed the standings after the German’s aforementioned incident with Stroll.
Key quote
“I think much better than I ever thought it would be in the race,” Verstappen said afterwards. “Of course I wanted to win but I didn’t think it was going to happen like this.
“It seemed like after five or six laps everyone had slashed their tires a little bit and we really started to take off. Of course, we had degradation but a little less than the others.
And after?
Following the Sprint Race, drivers will then be in action during Grand Prix Qualifying later on Saturday, with the session scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. local time. Head towards the RACING HUB to find out how to follow the action.