Today’s China Grand Prix was relatively unspectacular in the shadow of last weeks Australia Grand Prix. Still it was a race worth watching and worth remembering, at least for some.
The best start had George Russell who sadly was on the bad side of the track and not only failed to overtake pole sitter Piastri but also lost his second position to Norris. Verstappen, originally on four, lost two positions to Hamilton and Leclerc.
The Ferrari duo had a rough race day again this time. Leclerc lost one of his front wing endplates at the start to his own teammate and drove the rest of the race without it.
Another heartbreak happened in lap 6, when Alonso’s breaks got to hot and he was forced to sadly retire the car, due to the inability to break.
During the first pit stop window started by Gasly in lap 11 we got the first insight into the possible team strategies. Some, like Stroll and Bearman, stayed out, going for an obvious one stop strategy, and some pitted early, going for a two stop strategy.
In lap 14 the top contenders made their pit stops and Norris ended up behind Russell on the race track, but retook his place in a well done manoeuvre 4 laps later.
Going back to Ferrari, after several talks with their engineers, Hamilton and Leclerc were told to switch positions in lap 22, with Leclerc coming out on top of the driver duo. He continued to close the gap to Russell but did not manage to completely overtake him due to his car going into intense understeer.
Looking at our Rookies, Antonelli and Bearman did an incredible job. Antonelli managed to stay consistent, started and finished both in p8, despite having slightly damaged his car early in the race and Bearman, who started at 17, ended up in p10, securing good and well deserved points for Haas.
The last 9 laps were quite eventful. Tsunoda‘s front wing just broke in lap 47 which caused him to have to pit and end in p19. Norris‘ break pedal ended up going flat over the last laps. In the final lap he lost around 4s to Russell but secured himself p2 non the less.
Piastri, as mentioned before, drove a start to finish race on p1, followed by Norris and Russell. Verstappen ended on p4 after overtaking Leclerc in the last laps due to the latters understeering car. Leclerc and Hamilton secured themselves p5 and p6 inspite of difficult circumstances. Ocon ended in p7, Antonelli in p8, Albon in p9 and Bearman in p10.
The next race week will be the start of a triple header, namely Japan, Bahrain and Jeddah. In the two weeks of break in between now we will all be waiting, excited to see what everyone still has in store for us.
BREAKING:
Both Ferrari drivers and Pierre Gasly were disqualified from the race. That moves Ocon up to 5, Antonelli to 6, Albon to 7, Bearman to 8, Stroll to 9 and Sainz to 10.
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