Triple champion Max Verstappen came through from P4 on the starting grid to win the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race after passing old title rival Lewis Hamilton on lap nine.
The Red Bull driver appeared out of sorts in the opening series of laps as he struggled to charge his battery with the selected hybrid settings, but a series of adjustments on his steering wheel appeared to solve the issue.
With greater forward momentum, Verstappen pulled himself out of third with a simple DRS overtake on the second-placed Fernando Alonso, and then attack on a Turn 14 lock-up from Hamilton to close in for victory.
Polesitter Lando Norris had suffered a poorer start in comparison to Hamilton and, once the first corner began to approach, the Mercedes driver was level alongside the McLaren.
Norris attempted to hang his car around the outside, but Hamilton kept his car in the middle of the track at the switching point to the left-handed Turn 3. This left Norris out of road, where he ultimately dropped to seventh position.
After emerging with the lead, Hamilton started to gap Alonso and built a healthy 1.4-second buffer by the time the Aston Martin came under attack from a Verstappen.
Verstappen got by the Aston Martin driver who did not fight following a simple DRS pass, and a lap later Hamilton snatched at his left-front tyre at Turn 14 to lose time.
This gave Verstappen a great opportunity to pass for the lead on the ninth lap, which he took and disappeared off into the distance by gapping Hamilton at the rate of more than a second per lap. At the flag, Verstappen claimed the sprint victory by 13 seconds.
Hamilton remained unchallenged for second, while Sergio Perez snatched third after winning out in a thrilling scrap between himself, Alonso, and the Ferraris. This battle was the only highlight in the sprint as most of the time, it was a DRS train of cars remained in position.
Alonso had started to drop back after initially clinging on to Hamilton, slowly looming larger in Carlos Sainz’s vision as the Ferrari driver had the edge on pace over the second half. The pressure started to move up between the two and Sainz started to attack Alonso, but the Aston Martin remained in front.
Perez and Charles Leclerc also joined in and, when Alonso and Sainz went wheel to wheel through Turns 7 and 8 with contact, Perez took full advantage of the situation and went past at the following corner.
Third place was sealed when the Ferraris fought with each other rather than attempt to re-pass Perez, with Leclerc taking the position from his teammate. In the meantime, Alonso had dropped out of the race with a puncture after his contact with Sainz.
Norris, after his first-lap wide moment, was in touching distance with the pack in contention for third but could not work his way into the thick of that battle, but at least was well ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri in seventh place. George Russell completed the top eight with a gamble on soft tyres, finishing 6.2 seconds clear of home hero Zhou Guanyu to collect the final point on offer.
So not the most exciting sprint and yet it was a disappointing that Lando Norris was unable to take victory after starting from pole. Lewis Hamilton leading some laps was a highlight and yet the speed of Max Verstappen was unstoppable. Qualifying for the race comes next.
Chinese Grand Prix, sprint results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 32:04.660
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +13.043s
3 Serio Perez McLaren +15.258s
4 Chalres Leclerc Ferrari +17.486s
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +20.696s
6 Lando Norris McLaren +22.088s
7 Oscar Piastri McLaren +24.713s
8 George Russell Mercedes +25.696s
9 Guanyu Zhou Sauber +31.951s
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas +37.398s
11 Daniel Ricciardo RB +37.840s
12 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +38.295s
13 Esteban Ocon Alpine +39.841s
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +40.299s
15 Pierre Gasly Alpine +40.838s
16 Yuki Tsunoda RB +41.870s
17 Alex Albon Williams +42.998s
18 Logan Sargeant Williams +46.352s
19 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +49.630s
Fernando Alonso Aston Martin DNF
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen moved back to the top of the pecking order during Saturday’s Sprint race at the Shanghai International Circuit as he turned his low-key P4 starting position into a commanding victory.
Verstappen steadily worked his way up the order across the 19-lap encounter, benefitting from pole-sitter Lando Norris running off track during the first lap and then completing moves on Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.
With Hamilton finishing as runner-up, a thrilling battle for third ultimately went Sergio Perez’s way after Alonso picked up a puncture, as squabbling Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, the McLarens of Norris and Oscar Piastri and George Russell – on a bold soft-tyre strategy – completed the points.
Given the tweaked format in play for the 2024 season, Friday afternoon’s Sprint Qualifying session set the grid for the 100km dash, in which points would be offered to the top eight finishers – from a maximum of eight for P1 down to one for P8.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-charges-to-victory-over-hamilton-in-dramatic-shanghai-sprint.6B8IBGCczrPy6jLU3ztepf
Lewis Hamilton thinks Lando Norris would have been better off conceding position in their Turn 1 battle in Formula 1’s China sprint, as he had the pace to overtake later.
Norris had started Saturday’s sprint event in Shanghai from pole position but did not get away at the lights as well as fellow front-row starter Hamilton, who got inside him on the entry to the first corner.
Hamilton hugged the inside line throughout the long right-hander, while Norris tried to hang it around the outside before he lost grip off-line and ran off the circuit, dropping down the order.
Speaking about the Turn 1 battle with Norris, Hamilton said: “I obviously got a great start and had the inside line.
“He tried to hold the outside line and was just pushing to the maximum. I used everything to try to hold onto the position, and eventually, he got on the dirt on the outside.
“There is a point where, if you go a little bit too far, there is no grip out there.
“In that scenario, he should have just conceded and just parked up behind me. Probably would have had the pace to overtake me [later].”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-norris-would-have-been-better-off-conceding-in-turn-1/10600924/
McLaren says Lando Norris had no need to apologise for his Formula 1 sprint race showing in China, after failing to convert his pole position into a podium.
Norris had started from the front after a brilliant showing in Friday’s wet qualifying session, but it all went wrong at Turn 1 of the sprint race after he came off worse in a side-by-side tussle with Lewis Hamilton.
Having lost ground away from the grid, he found himself on the dirt on the outside of the long right- hand first corner. And, after instantly losing grip, he ran wide and dropped down the order.
While he was able to recover and finished sixth in the end, Norris clearly felt he should have done better.
Speaking over the team radio after the chequered flag, Norris said: “Yeah, I f****d up Turn 1, my bad. I just completely lost the car, so apologies. Should have scored some more points than that.”
But McLaren boss Andrea Stella moved quickly to say that rather than the driver apologising, it was the team that should be saying sorry for not giving him a car that was better able to fight for wins.
“He feels, I’m sure, like ‘I’ve disappointed the team.’ [But] don’t worry, Lando, you haven’t disappointed the team. We need to give you a better car and then all things will become much easier, rather than always being on the limit to bring on some important results.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/norris-had-no-reason-to-apologise-for-f1-sprint-showing-says-mclaren/10600939/