Shanghai GP, Verstappen wins the Sprint Race. Sportellate between Leclerc and Sainz, chaos-Ferrari – Libero Quotidiano

Again Max Verstappen: the leader of the Formula 1 world championship won the sprint race of the Chinese Grand Prix, the fifth round of the 24 season, held on the Shanghai track. The Dutchman preceded the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and his teammate, the Mexican Sergio Perez.

The Ferraris of Monegasque Charles Leclerc and Spaniard Carlos Sainz follow, protagonists of a fiery duel complete with contact: the tension in red skyrockets. Lando Norris, who started on pole, eventually finished sixth ahead of his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

The two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, third until three laps from the end, threatened by the Perez-Leclerc-Sainz trio, came into contact with Sainz and had to retire. Thanks to the victory, Verstappen recovers another eight points in the championship and widens the gap with chasing Perez. Fifteen points now separate the Dutch from the Mexican.

But as we said, the tension exploded for the Ferraris in a challenge for fourth place. Leclerc was very harsh at the end of the race: “We’ll talk about it later, he fights more with me than with the others.” The reference was obviously to Carlos Sainz, who tried to close the trajectory with a somewhat reckless maneuver, which led to contact between the cars of his teammates. “We’ll talk about it – the Monegasque repeated – but I was in a different situation, with the tires and I had the mobile wing, he was too aggressive. But I don’t think there will be any consequences: it has already happened other times. It’s just a shame that he had lost ground on Perez.” Leclerc’s overtaking was excellent, Sainz’s defense was difficult. £ After the fight with Fernando I had damage and destroyed tires, does he say I was too aggressive? If he says so I will look into it and if it is true I apologize”, concludes the Spaniard.