Formula 1 News: Verstappen dominates 2024 Chinese GP

World Champion Max Verstappen lost a 20s lead to two full Safety Car periods, but still managed to win the 2024 Chinese GP by over 13s over the McLaren of Lando Norris.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Norris held off Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez who took the final podium position in third ahead of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. in 4th in 5th on the Shanghai circuit.

“Surprised, I’m very happy – today it just worked out, I wasn’t expecting it,” said Norris.

“Good day, good points so I’m very happy. I was surprised by many things – the lack of pace from Ferrari, our good pace, us comparing to the Red Bull… It shows the team has done a good job, and it paid off. I made a bet about how far behind the Ferrari we would finish today, I thought 35 seconds and I was very wrong!”

Perez cooked his tires battling with Leclerc for third and was unable to mount a challenge on Lando Norris for 2nd and had to settle for 3rd.

“Yeah it cost us quite a bit, we lost two places [under the Safety Car] and it was just tough fighting like that, the life of the tire goes off dramatically.,” said Perez.

Norris apologized to his team after the Sprint, dropping from Sprint pole down the order. But Norris has more than made up for that with a brilliant drive to second today, finishing ahead of the second Red Bull which is no mean feat at the moment.

Verstappen took the lead from the pole at the start and built a big lead over his teammate Sergio Perez and after the first round of pitstops had built an almost 20s lead.

Verstappen had his lead wiped out when the engine on Valtteri Bottas’ Sauber blew and the yellow flags were displayed,

With Bottas’ car proving immovable, the physical Safety Car was then released and the bulk of the field took the opportunity to pit. The Red Bulls, with their lead wiped out, pitted again  and Verstappen took up the lead behind the Safety Car. However, Pérez was jumped by Norris and Leclerc who both had stopped under the earlier VSC. The Mexican, who sat in fourth ahead of Sainz, Alonso and Russell, was now faced with a fight to the flag.

The Safety Car left the circuit at the end of lap 26 and Verstappen controlled the restart well, dropping the throttle in Turn 14 and powering away as a slower Norris was in the middle of the hairpin.

On the restart, Lance Stroll ran out of talent again and rammed Daniel Riccardo in the back under braking and at the same time the Haas of Kevin Magnussen spun his teammate Yuki Tsunoda around and out of the race. Those two incidents brought out another full Safety Car.

If not for the Safety Car periods, Verstappen likely would have won by over 30s. It was Verstappen’s 58th F1 victory and 4th of 2024.

Verstappen took 8 points for winning the Sprint race and another 25 today giving him a total of 110 points and a 25 point lead over Perez and 34 points over Leclerc.

“It felt amazing, it was so enjoyable to drive on every single compound,”said a dominant Verstappen.

“The car was on rails, I could do whatever I wanted to do with it.

“[Miami] should be a good race for us, I’m excited for a busy one,” another Sprint Race Weekend.

2024 Chinese GP Race Results – 56 laps