The Formula One circus brought their parade to Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix, returning after five years and the excitement in the air was quite visible as the Chinese public gathered in masses to see the Grand Prix weekend that lay ahead of them. And there’s no doubt as to why they were gathered up in such high numbers.
The Shanghai International Circuit has been home to a lot of enthralling moments in Formula One racing. Be it Hamilton’s pit lane screw up which made the 2007 world championship more exciting, Schumacher’s 91st and last win, Buemi’s self-destructing car, or the pit Lane racing between Vettel and Hamilton.
After four non-racing years, the track was resurfaced a bit. More specifically, there has been an additional layer of Tarmac and Bitumen added to ‘re-surface’ the track. No additional changes were made to the track.
Regulations had changed over four years, the new ground effect cars would post at different times and would have different aero configurations compared to the previous cars. This meant that the teams and drivers we going blind into the race weekend, only relying on Simulator data and projections.
The Chinese Grand Prix Weekend was the first sprint weekend of the ‘24 season, with the format being a Free Practice session and a Sprint qualifying session on Friday, followed by the sprint race and a Qualifying session for the main race on a Saturday, with the Race on Sunday.
Free Practice
Free Practice began a small fire on the trackside grass which saw a slight delay in the commencement of the session. the drivers were all over the track, trying to get information and understand the dynamics of the track. As mentioned before, the regulations have been changed so each driver felt like a rookie, trying to find cheat codes and grip wherever they could find them.
At the end of the session, Lance Stroll topped the chart with a 1:36.302 followed by Oscar Piastri (+0.327) and Max Verstappen (+0.358).
Sprint Qualifying
Sprint Qualifying saw the first hints of rain over the entire weekend. The Sprint Qualifying sessions didn’t see any action per se.
SQ1
Eliminated: Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon, Yuki Tsunoda, Logan Sargent.
SQ2
Eliminated: George Russell, Kevin Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll.
SQ3
The drivers found no grip on the track due to the clouds giving way. Intermediate tyres seemed to be the choice for the teams.
Lando Norris posted a time of 1:57.940 which bagged him his first sprint pole. Hamilton followed with a 1:59.201 which got him second place. The top three was completed by Fernando Alonso with a lap that clocked in 1:59.915.
Norris’ lap was deleted by the stewards for exceeding track limits which gifted Hamilton Pole Position. A happy Hamilton was soon left dejected as Norris’ lap was re-instated which dropped the 7x World Champion back to P2.
Sprint Race
As the lights went out for the Sprint race in Shanghai, Norris shot off the line with Hamilton following close behind. As the duo reached Turn 1, Norris ran wide and dropped down to P6 as the field went past him and his McLaren. By Lap 3, Hamilton led from Alonso then Verstappen then Sainz and Perez. Lap 7 saw Verstappen overtake Alonso for P2. As Alonso dropped, he upped his defence as on Lap 15, he kept both the Ferraris and Perez at bay.
But on Lap 16, his defence was thwarted by Carlos Sainz who went wheel to wheel with his fellow Spaniard. Perez took advantage of this skirmish and shot past which was quite reminiscent of the ‘Through goes Hamilton’ moment from Silverstone 2022. Alonso suffered a puncture during the skirmish he had with Carlos which saw him come into the pits and retire.
The Sprint race came to an end with Verstappen taking the chequered flag with Hamilton and Perez filling out the podium positions.
Qualifying
Q1 saw home hero Zhou Guanyu, Kevin Magnussen, Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, and Logan Sargent drop out and get eliminated. Hamilton had a disastrous qualifying, only able to do as good as P18. The last time Hamilton was knocked out of Q1 was in Jeddah at the Saudi Arabian GP in 2022.
Q2 saw Sainz take a dip into the gravel trap at the final corner and spin out, hitting the barrier and damaging his car. He lost his Front wing and was forced to pit.
As the session ended, Lance Stroll, Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon, and Pierre Gasly were eliminated.
Q3 saw Oscar Piastri almost replicate Sainz’s collision in his #87 McLaren. Q3 ended with Max Verstappen taking Pole with a banker lap of 1:333.660. This is Red Bull’s centenary pole position and also the track where they scored their first Pole Position in the Hands of Sebastian. The other Red Bull of Sergio Perez locked out the front row. Fernando Alonso placed his Aston Martin in P3, with both McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri sitting comfortably in P4 and P5.
Race
The race was contested on the 21st of April, 2024 through 56 laps. little drizzle over the track before the race meant that grip would be scarce. A two-stop strategy would be optimal with more emphasis on the hard tyres.
As the lights went out for the main race, Verstappen and Perez went off the line swiftly but Alonso reacted quicker than the Mexican. This caught him off guard which allowed Alonso to pass him around the outside to take P2. At the back, Hulkenberg made big moves in his Haas by overtaking both the Ferraris.
By Lap 5, Perez started inching closer to Alonso to gain back his position, everything stayed the same until Lap 20. The yellow flag was brought out as Valterri Bottas crashed out. A virtual Safety Car was put into effect which turned into a Full Safety Car.
By Lap 27, The Safety Car was brought in but was redeployed again as both RBs Tsunoda and Ricciardo crashed out due to a spin and a collision with Stroll respectively.
Lap 33 had Hamilton recover to P10 which showed his immense understanding of the track. With the second Safety car, a lot of cars pitted which handed the lead to Norris. As Lap 40, came by, Verstappen overtook Norris for the lead and built an 8 sec lead over him. Alonso kept an eye for Sainz at the back and overtook Hamilton and Piastri to seal the deal.
On Lap 54, Verstappen had built a 12-second lead on Norris and as the chequered flag dropped on at the end of Lap 56 he coasted away for a beautiful Chinese Grand Prix. Lando Norris finished a strong P2 with the third spot getting occupied by Sergio Perez.
Home Hero Zhou Guanyu shared a wholesome with his countrymen as he was given his spot on the grid after the race. He shed a tear and waved proudly at his fans who showed him support and love throughout the weekend.
Here is the Final Race Classification after the scintillating 56 laps:
Championship Standings
Verstappen extends his championship lead while His and Perez’s valiant efforts help Red Bull stay on the top of the Constructors Standings.
All in all, it was an amazing weekend for Formula One racing and it only goes to show that China deserves a spot on the F1 calendar for all its exciting track action. The next race is the Miami Grand Prix which will be contested from the 3rd of May to the 6th of May.