The championship leader appeared to be in trouble from the opening laps as he struggled to recharge his battery with the selected hybrid settings, but a series of changes to his steering wheel appeared to rectify the problem.
With greater forward momentum, Verstappen raced out of third place with a simple DRS pass on second-place Fernando Alonso, then pounced on a Turn 14 block from Hamilton to take victory.
Pole sitter Lando Norris had gotten off to a poorer start than Hamilton and, once the first corner began to approach, the Mercedes driver was level with the McLaren.
Norris attempted to hang his car on the outside as the circuit wound into the long right-hander at the start of the lap, but Hamilton kept his car in the middle of the road at the switch point into the left-hander Turn 3 . left Norris off the road, where he ultimately dropped to seventh place.
After taking the lead, Hamilton began to distance Alonso and built a good buffer of 1.4 seconds by the time the Spaniard was attacked by Verstappen with renewed vigor.
The seas appeared to part for Verstappen as the Aston Martin driver did not fight the Red Bull driver with DRS, and a lap later Hamilton tore out his left front tire at Turn 14 to lose time.
This gave Verstappen a slamming opportunity to move for the lead on lap nine, which he duly took and waltzed away, outpacing Hamilton at the rate of over a second per lap. At the checkered flag, Verstappen took victory by 13 seconds.
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Hamilton remained unchallenged for second, while Sergio Perez claimed third after coming out on top in a thrilling tussle between him, Alonso and the two Ferraris.
Alonso had started to fall back after initially clinging to Hamilton, gradually growing bigger in Carlos Sainz’s vision as the Ferrari driver had the pace advantage during the second half. The pressure began to build between the two Spanish drivers and Sainz began to throw a few barbs at Alonso, but the Aston Martin remained in front.
Pérez and Charles Leclerc also joined the fray and, when Alonso and Sainz clashed in turns 7 and 8 with contact, Pérez took full advantage of the situation and stole the next corner.
Third place was sealed when the Ferraris fought amongst themselves rather than attempting to pass Perez, with Leclerc repeatedly shown the door before finally clearing Sainz for fourth. In the meantime, Alonso had abandoned the race following a puncture following his contact with Sainz.
Norris, after his wide moment on the opening lap, was close to the pack vying for third place, but couldn’t force his way into the heart of that battle, but he was at least well ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri in seventh place. George Russell completed the top eight on the soft tyres, finishing 6.2 seconds ahead of local hero Zhou Guanyu to claim the final point on offer.
Chinese F1 GP – Sprint results:
The championship leader appeared to be in trouble from the opening laps as he struggled to recharge his battery with the selected hybrid settings, but a series of changes to his steering wheel appeared to rectify the problem.
With greater forward momentum, Verstappen raced out of third place with a simple DRS pass on second-place Fernando Alonso, then pounced on a Turn 14 block from Hamilton to take victory.
Pole sitter Lando Norris had gotten off to a poorer start than Hamilton and, once the first corner began to approach, the Mercedes driver was level with the McLaren.
Norris attempted to hang his car on the outside as the circuit wound into the long right-hander at the start of the lap, but Hamilton kept his car in the middle of the road at the switch point into the left-hander Turn 3 . left Norris off the road, where he ultimately dropped to seventh place.
After taking the lead, Hamilton began to distance Alonso and built a good buffer of 1.4 seconds by the time the Spaniard was attacked by Verstappen with renewed vigor.
The seas appeared to part for Verstappen as the Aston Martin driver did not fight the Red Bull driver with DRS, and a lap later Hamilton tore out his left front tire at Turn 14 to lose time.
This gave Verstappen a slamming opportunity to move for the lead on lap nine, which he duly took and waltzed away, outpacing Hamilton at the rate of over a second per lap. At the checkered flag, Verstappen took victory by 13 seconds.
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Hamilton remained unchallenged for second, while Sergio Perez claimed third after coming out on top in a thrilling tussle between him, Alonso and the two Ferraris.
Alonso had started to fall back after initially clinging to Hamilton, gradually growing bigger in Carlos Sainz’s vision as the Ferrari driver had the pace advantage during the second half. The pressure began to build between the two Spanish drivers and Sainz began to throw a few barbs at Alonso, but the Aston Martin remained in front.
Pérez and Charles Leclerc also joined the fray and, when Alonso and Sainz clashed in turns 7 and 8 with contact, Pérez took full advantage of the situation and stole the next corner.
Third place was sealed when the Ferraris fought amongst themselves rather than attempting to pass Perez, with Leclerc repeatedly shown the door before finally clearing Sainz for fourth. In the meantime, Alonso had abandoned the race following a puncture following his contact with Sainz.
Norris, after his wide moment on the opening lap, was close to the pack vying for third place, but couldn’t force his way into the heart of that battle, but he was at least well ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri in seventh place. George Russell completed the top eight on the soft tyres, finishing 6.2 seconds ahead of local hero Zhou Guanyu to claim the final point on offer.