After a five-year absence, the Shanghai circuit has returned to the Queen of Motorsport's calendar.. The current Chinese Grand Prix was held in a sprint format, so Formula 1 fans had the opportunity to see more races.
Rainy qualifying for the sprint brought many surprises: Lando Norris in McLaren took pole position, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-AMG) took second, and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) rounded out the top three.
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen started only fourth in the Red Bull. However, he managed to win the sprint: Lando Norris made a mistake on the first lap and lost the lead.
The final eight looked like this: Verstappen, Hamilton, Perez, Leclerc, Sainz, Lando Norris, Piastri, Russell. Qualifying for the main race had fewer surprises, because the Red Bull drivers won the first row. Lewis Hamilton, who showed an excellent result in the sprint, qualified only in 18th position.
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⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️LIGHTS OUT!! The 2024 Chinese Grand Prix is GO!
Alonso sweeps past Perez into Turn 1 and is up to P2 👏 #F1 #ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/KerzgxF4fZ
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 21, 2024
The start of the race was quite calm. Max Verstappen confidently retained lead. Sergio Perez lost his position to Fernando Alonso, who started behind him, but was able to regain it on lap 5. Subsequently, on lap 7, Alonso lost the position to Lando Norris.
After the first wave of pit stops, a virtual safety car mode suddenly appeared on the track due to Valtteri Bottas' retirement. The marshals were unable to evacuate the car for a long time, so a real safety car appeared on the track.
Most of the pilots took advantage of this and made a pit stop. At that time, the top ten looked like this: Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc, Perez, Piastri, Sainz, Alonso (who was the only one to change into soft shoes), Russell, Ricciardo, Stroll.
LAP 27/56
The Safety Car comes in and we are racing again, or are we…
Magnussen sends Tsunoda spinning at the restart and team mate Ricciardo is shunted from behind by Stroll 😵#F1 #ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/DrL5kOOJlu
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 21, 2024
However, during the restart of the race, Stroll crashed into Ricciardo, which caused damage to both cars, and a few turns later Kevin Magnussen also had contact with Yuki Tsunoda. Both got a puncture in their tires. Due to the debris, a safety car appeared on the track again. Magnussen and Stroll received 10 second penalties. Tsunoda was forced to withdraw from the race.
After the restart, Ricciardo retired, who was seriously injured and began to lose ground.. After all these incidents, Hamilton ended up in the top ten and was in 9th place.. Alonso made another stop and chose Medium tires for the final stretch of the race.. This allowed him to pass Hamilton and Piastri and finish the race in 7th position.
Max Verstappen (Source: Motorsport.com)
Max Verstappen wins the Grand Prix. Second place was held by Lando Norris, and third was Sergio Perez, who was never able to catch up with the Briton. Leclerc, Sainz, Russell, Alonso, Piastri, Hamilton and Hulkenberg also won points.
The first Chinese Formula 1 driver, Zhou Guangyu, for whom this round was home, failed to win points. The next Grand Prix will take place in Miami on May 5th.