Verstappen wins on Shanghai return: Analysis of the Chinese Grand Prix

Verstappen wins on Shanghai return: Analysis of the Chinese Grand Prix, brought to you by Bahrain International Circuit.

F1 returned to China for the first time in five years, with the Shanghai International Circuit back to hosting duties. It’s a testament to how quickly F1 evolves as a sport when you take into consideration the fact that the last time F1 raced in China, Max Verstappen had just five career wins to his name and Lewis Hamilton was still mid-way through his dominant phase as world champion.

It was also a sprint weekend; the first of the season with a slightly new format. Friday would comprise one practice session, followed by sprint qualifying, with the sprint race and race qualifying on Saturday and the main race on Sunday. If the huge crowd attendance for Friday was anything to go by, this format seems to be popular with the fans.

Weather was a constant feature for the weekend, with Friday’s sprint qualifying taking place in very wet conditions. This caused some unpredictable results as Lando Norris put his McLaren top in sprint qualifying, ahead of Hamilton and Alonso. In fact, there were five different teams in the top five places, which gave the potential for an exciting sprint race, not least with Verstappen only starting from fourth. At the start of the sprint, Norris and Hamilton were neck and neck, but perhaps rather too keen to hold on top his lead, Norris was pushed wide and he lost several places and would go on to finish sixth. Whilst Hamilton could not hold on for a win, he certainly outperformed considering his car’s current form, with a second place ahead of Sergio Perez, behind a victorious Max Verstappen.

Red Bull were certainly on ominous form and carried that through into qualifying for the main race as they took the front row of the grid. Fernando Alonso continued his form of being able to get more out of his car than perhaps one would expect, qualifying third, just ahead of the two McLaren’s of Norris and Piastri. Perhaps most surprisingly, Ferrari looked like they were struggling for pace and could only manage to qualify sixth and seventh.

All the data pointed to a two-stop strategy for the main race with the circuit known for its high degradation of tyres, but, as ever, timing and track position would be critical and the ability to react to safety cars and other incidents were also important. Whilst team strategists would have poured over data and planned countless scenarios in advance, it was a pair of safety cars halfway into the race that dictated how the race would unfold. Engine failure for Bottas led to a safety car on lap 23 and a chance for most to change to the hard tyre and run through to the end. There was a further incident at the restart, causing Ricciardo to retire and causing damage to Piastri’s car which limited his performance for the remainder of the race. Effectively, it was down to a 30-lap sprint race, given that none of the leading pack would need to stop again.