Max Verstappen winsonce again at the end of an unchallenged dominion, the Chinese GP, ahead of Lando Norris and Sergio Perez at the end of a perfect weekend by the Dutchman, who only lacks the additional point of the fastest lap achieved by Alonso thanks to an aggressive strategy due to lack of tyres. McLaren surprisingly proved to be second force behind Red Bull on a very difficult track for the MCL38 as announced first by Norris after yesterday; the Working team was helped by a very difficult weekend for Ferrari, never competitive except for the very first stages of the weekend. Fernando Alonso drove an excellent race, confirming Aston Martin’s status as the fourth force after the updates brought to Suzuka, with the Spaniard taking a good seventh position. Further back, the Racing Bulls drivers were unlucky, especially Ricciardo, who missed an opportunity to score more points, obtained by Nico Hulkenberg in tenth position less than a penalty at the end of a positive Chinese GP at Haas.
Chinese GP: FIA unprepared in managing the Safety Car, Ferrari never alive
Starting from the early stages of the race, both Ferraris lost two positions in rapid succession to Russell and Hulkenberg, also due to an internal debacle with Leclerc who concentrated on maintaining his position against his teammate. From the first laps the Red Bulls showed their well-known superiority, with Alonso struggling after a few laps due to the high degradation on his AMR24 despite the updates brought to Suzuka. Surprisingly, McLaren kept pace well also thanks to a great management competition by Lando Norris, with degradation under control and a gap from Red Bull of around half a second in total, waiting for the data analysis of the Chinese GP. The worst Ferrari of the season, and not by a little, finished in fourth and fifth position in Shanghai, 24 seconds behind Verstappen in just 25 laps after the restart of the second Safety Car; Sainz and especially Leclerc have never been comfortable with the car even in the race, the changes to the set-up of the SF-24 between Sprint and Qualifying yesterday did not give the desired results and today a significant portion of performance was missing, in addition to serious tire heating problems. The Reds were at the level of competitiveness of Mercedes and Aston Martin, with the small consolation of having beaten both Russell and Alonso, who due to a lack of sets of hard tires had to make a stop after the Safety Car came in, finishing in seventh position .
The most chaotic phases of the Grand Prix were a consequence of the retirement of Valtteri Bottas between the first and second stint, which favored drivers like Norris and Leclerc who had yet to return to the pits, however the stewards’ management was anything but optimal: initially the Virtual Safety Car was inserted to allow the removal of the Finn’s Sauber, after five laps the physical Safety Car was called into action missing out on nearly ten rounds of action in total. At the restart, a misunderstanding between the drivers at the hairpin led Lance Stroll to hit Daniel Ricciardo, who lost a great chance to get his first points of the season due to damage to the bottom and diffuser of his Racing Bulls which led to his retirement; in turn 6 Magnussen touched Yuki Tsunoda, forcing the Japanese to retire and also preventing the second VCARB-01 from being able to fight for the points zone. The second Safety Car restart was called to the track causing more laps of action to be lost.
Tags: Chinese Verstappen wins ahead Norris Ferrari unrecognizable
