2024 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, April 19 - 21 Sportsbook Motor Sport

[Tom]

Friday 19th April
Practice 1 - 4.30am
Sprint Qualifying - 8.30am

Saturday 20th April
Sprint Race - 4.00am
Qualifying - 8.00am

Sunday 21st April
Race - 8.00am



Formula 1 returns to China for the first time since 2019, featuring ground-effect cars on the Shanghai International Circuit, posing challenges for teams due to limited testing.

 

[Tom]

Sprint qualifying was crazy but it was decent to watch.

Looks like the new surface does not like the rain.

1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:36.384	1:36.047	1:57.940
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:37.181	1:36.287	1:59.201
3	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:36.883	1:36.119	1:59.915
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:36.456	1:35.606	2:00.028
5	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1:36.719	1:36.052	2:00.214
6	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing	1:36.110	1:35.781	2:00.375
7	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:36.537	1:35.711	2:00.566
8	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:36.542	1:35.853	2:00.990
9	Valtteri Bottas	Kick Sauber	1:37.112	1:36.056	2:01.044
10	Zhou Guanyu	Kick Sauber	1:37.544	1:36.307	2:03.537
11	George Russell	Mercedes	1:37.310	1:36.345
12	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:37.033	1:36.473
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	1:36.924	1:36.478
14	Daniel Ricciardo	Rb	1:37.321	1:36.553
15	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:36.961	1:36.677
16	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:37.632
17	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:37.720
18	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:37.812
19	Yuki Tsunoda	Rb	1:37.892
20	Logan Sargeant	Williams	1:37.923

 

[Tom]

In the first sprint race of the season Max Verstappen worked his way up the order to claim a dominant sprint race victory at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Having started from pole position, McLaren driver Lando Norris was unable to maintain his spot at the start as Lewis Hamilton had a better getaway. The Mercedes driver overtook the pole-sitter into Turn 1, who then made a mistake and ran wide at Turn 2 which saw him drop down the order to P7.

The next laps saw Hamilton build up a gap of just over a second from Fernando Alonso with Verstappen appearing to struggle for pace. The reigning champion reported issues with his battery, but Red Bull seemed to find a solution for the problem quickly.

By Lap 7, Verstappen managed to get inside DRS range to Alonso, and overtook him on the next lap down the back straight. On Lap 9, Hamilton made a mistake, running wide through the hairpin. His mistake meant that Verstappen had DRS.

On the next tour, the Dutchman closed in on Hamilton and pulled out from the slipstream on the back straight to take away the lead from the seven-time world champion. Three laps later, Verstappen was four seconds ahead of Hamilton, displaying impressive pace in the second half of the 19-lap sprint.

In the chasing pack, Alonso emerged as the cork of the bottle as he held up Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and Norris. Despite attempting multiple overtaking manoeuvres, Sainz was unable to get by Alonso. The pair then showed a brilliant battle on Lap 16 which saw Alonso and Sainz go side by side for several corners.

With Alonso forcing Sainz off the track at Turn 9, Perez managed to sneak through to jump to P3. Alonso and Sainz touched at some point in that melee, and the two-two-time champion suffered a puncture which forced him to pit.

On Lap 17, Leclerc was eager to overtake his team-mate, but Sainz was extremely aggressive, and the pair touched at Turn 14. However, the Monégasque managed to pass his Spanish team-mate, but he was unable to make further progress despite his eye-catching late race pace.

At the front, Verstappen won the sprint by a mighty 13 seconds from Hamilton and his team-mate Perez. Leclerc came home fourth with Sainz, Norris, Oscar Piastri and Russell completing the point-scoring positions.

 

[Tom]

Fresh from winning the first sprint race of the season earlier, Verstappen was 0.322 seconds clear of Perez.

The Mexican pipped Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin by 0.166secs with McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri next.
Lewis Hamilton had a dire day, qualifying 18th.

His Mercedes team-mate George Russell was eighth behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:34.742	1:33.794	1:33.660
2	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	1:35.457	1:34.026	1:33.982
3	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:35.116	1:34.652	1:34.148
4	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:34.842	1:34.460	1:34.165
5	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:35.014	1:34.659	1:34.273
6	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:34.797	1:34.399	1:34.289
7	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	1:34.970	1:34.368	1:34.297
8	George Russell	Mercedes	1:35.084	1:34.609	1:34.433
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	1:35.068	1:34.667	1:34.604
10	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	1:35.169	1:34.769	1:34.665
11	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:35.334	1:34.838	not available-
12	Daniel Ricciardo	RB	31:35.443	1:34.934	not available-
13	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:35.356	1:35.223	not available-
14	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:35.384	1:35.241	not available-
15	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:35.287	1:35.463	not available-
16	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber	1:35.505	not available-	not available-
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:35.516	not available-	not available-
18	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:35.573	not available-	not available-
19	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	1:35.746	not available-	not available-
20	Logan Sargeant	Williams	1:36.358	not available

 

[Dylan]

Not much of a race. Predictable that Verstappen would cruise to victory but brilliant from Lando on a track and weekend that was supposedly "damage limitation". Upgrades coming for Miami so hopefully closer to RB.

Ferrari will be scratching their heads. At no point did they look a threat and without the safety car woukd have been looking at a close to 20 second defecit to Norris.