Max Verstappen Wins his First Race in China

Logan Sargeant started from the pit lane whilst everyone else lined up on the grid. It was up until the very last minute Aston Martin were fixing something on Fernando Alonso’s car – which they ultimately completed.

The shocker yesterday was Lewis Hamilton exiting the qualifying session during the first part which meant he would start from the penultimate row of the grid, down in 18th place.

At the start, Verstappen held onto P1, followed by Fernando Alonso who managed to get past Sergio Perez – the Mexican down to third.

It wasn’t the best start for everyone on the grid, however. Hamilton was unable to make any impact at the start on his soft compound tyres – instead, going backwards. The two Ferrari drivers also had a nightmare start, both of them getting past by Mercedes driver George Russell.

There wasn’t very much action within the first few laps, but on Lap 5, Perez made his move on Alonso at Turn 6, retaking the position he lost at the beginning.

An incident between Hülkenberg and Stroll came under investigation but in the end, there was no further investigation into the matter. The same can be said for an incident between Albon and Gasly.

On Lap 8, Lando Norris got himself past Alonso and up to P3. It was at the end of this lap where drivers started to box. Those who did where the home hero, Zhou Guanyu, Yuki Tsundoa, and Nico Hülkenberg.

The following lap, more drivers pitted including Hamilton from towards the back of the grid. Whilst they did, Leclerc got past Piastri for P4.

It was on Lap 13, at Turn 1, where Hamilton swooped past Tsunoda – the seven-time World Champion fighting his way up to the points paying positions.

At the end of the same lap, the top two took their first pit stops. Verstappen took his first, coming in from the lead, his teammate coming in behind him. This allowed Norris to take the lead of the race, with him comfortable on his tyre compound.

There was pit-stop drama down at Alpine as Gasly tried to exit his pit-box. His right-rear tyre was not put on correctly, and as he went to drive away, the tyre came off and hit an Alpine mechanic – the stop lasting just under 20 seconds.

Piastri and Sainz pitted at the end of Laps 16 and 17 respectively. The drama then began to unfold as Valtteri Bottas stopped on the runoff area at Turn 11. He reported on the radio that the “engine had gone”. The Virtual Safety Car was bought out as Bottas got out of his car.

It wasn’t the best of timings as Lando Norris went past the pit entry – missing a perfect opportunity to decrease his pit-stop time. Or so he thought! Charles Leclerc boxed, and luckily for Norris, the yellow flags were still waving as he came past the second time, coming out P3.

The VSC turned into a full Safety Car, and 10 of the remaining drivers pitted. Hamilton came on the radio to say that his “car feels broken” but everything was reported as okay from the Mercedes garage.

Sargeant and Hülkenberg were noted for a safety car infringement which led to the former receiving a 10-second time penalty.

The Safety Car came in at the end of Lap 26 and racing was resumed. The drivers at the front of the field got away cleanly – Verstappen holding onto his lead from Lando Norris.

Magnussen and Tsunoda made contact which resulted in the Japanese being spun around and taken out of the race, and both of them getting punctures. The Safety Car was once again bought out.

But that wasn’t the only bit of contact that occurred. Before racing was resumed after the first Safety Car, Stroll had made contact with Daniel Ricciardo in front of him. The Canadian went straight into the back of the Aussie, causing his front wing to break, and completely destroying the diffuser of the RB. This incident was noted as the cars were following the Safety Car for the second time this race.

Green flag racing resumed and Ricciardo headed backwards. It wasn’t long until the car was into the pits and retired from the race.

What followed was multiple penalties! As mentioned previously, Sargeant received a 10-second penalty for his safety car infringement. As well as this, Stroll received a 10-second penalty for his contact with Ricciardo, and Magnussen was hit with a 10-second penalty for his contact with Tsunoda.

Perez past Leclerc for P3 on Lap 39, the Mexican now on his way to hunt down McLaren driver, Lando Norris.

Speaking of McLaren, we then found out that Norris’ teammate, Oscar Piastri, had got damage from the contact between Stroll and Ricciardo. Replays showed that Ricciardo touched Piastri’s rear which caused the decline in the performance of his McLaren.

From the back of the grid, Hamilton had climbed his way up to the points, passing Hülkenberg for P10 on Lap 41.

Alonso pitted at the end of Lap 43 and put on the medium compound tyre. He had a lot of work to do to get back up to where he was – and he managed to do that quite well, finishing a respectful P7.

But that was after he had to get past his former teammate and rival, Lewis Hamilton. And it was a nail-biting moment as he did it! Going onto Lap 49, Alonso dipped his right rear tyre into the gravel (very much like how Carlos Sainz did yesterday during qualifying). Thankfully for Alonso, he didn’t end up in the wall and was able to continue his hunt after going full anti-lock to keep it on the road.

Home hero Zhou Guanyu made some good moves towards the end of the race, passing both Sargeant and Magnussen. He finished a very respectable 14th at his first home race after waiting 3 years to do so. It was so incredibly emotional watching him get out of his car at the end of the race and stand there on the pit straight with all those fans there to cheer him on. I am personally so happy he was able to finish the race – and I hope that this was not the last time we see him race here in F1.

Vertappen took the chequered flag, followed by Norris and Perez. The final classification looked like this:

Vertappen

Norris (DOTD)

Perez

Leclerc

Sainz

Russell

Alonso (Fastest Lap)

Piastri

Hamilton

Hülkenberg

Ocon

Albon

Gasly

Zhou

Stroll

Magnussen

Sargeant

Ricciardo (DNF)

Tsunoda (DNF)

Bottas (DNF)

Here is what Verstappen had to say about his first win in China: “It felt amazing. All weekend I think we were incredibly quick. It was just enjoyable to drive every single compound as well. Restarts I think we survived that well. The car was basically on rails, I could do whatever I wanted to with it, and those kinds of weekends are of course amazing to feel. Then, to achieve what we did this weekend is fantastic.”

In two weeks time, F1 returns to America for the first race there of the season. It is another Sprint Race weekend and McLaren are bringing upgrades – so would could be on the cards for the Woking based team? Is there anyone else who will have a good showing here? We will all find out a couple of weeks!