Verstappen wins the sprint; Alonso, Sainz and Perez touching the podium in China

first sprint race The Chinese Grand Prix of the Formula 1 season promised strong emotions, and Max Verstappen did not disappoint in his appointment. Early in the morning in Spain and in the last hours of the day in Latin America, the Dutchman was injured in the first laps battery problemrecovered, overtook Alonso and Hamilton and won the 19-lap race.

At the start, Lewis Hamilton attacked Lando Norris, who made a costly mistake that saw him fall from first to seventh place and lose all his opportunities. The Mercedes driver was in the lead, but as we approached the halfway point of the race, Verstappen overtook him with DRS and then slipped away.

After Norris’ misfortune, Fernando Alonso took second place in the opening laps, but when Verstappen overtook him on lap 7, he had to start defending from Carlos Sainz, who in turn was defending from Sergio Perez, who in turn joined Charles Leclerc.

On the 16th lap there was drama. The faster Sainz pursued Alonso, who did not give up, and after a duel at several corners they made contact, causing a puncture in the Aston Martin, which was forced to retire without points, and damaging the Ferrari. This allowed Sergio Perez to get ahead of both and take the podium in the sprint race.

Sainz then went head-to-head with Leclerc as the stewards began to investigate what had happened to Alonso.

While Leclerc passed the 55th position without any problems with two laps remaining, Lando Norris also stuck to the driver’s car. Horse, although Sainz managed to retain sixth place. The points zone was completed by George Russell, who returned on soft tyres. Local idol Guanyu Zhou came close to finishing in ninth place (there are only eight riders in the sprint race).

Then, after three and a half hours (09:00 in Spain, 01:00 in Mexico, 04:00 in Argentina or 15:00 in China), the main classification will be presented, which will form the grid for Sunday’s competition. race.

2024 F1 Chinese Grand Prix Sprint Race Results

2024 Chinese F1 Grand Prix Sprint Race Results

Hamilton performed better than Norris and after neither gave way, Norris retired at turns two and three, leaving Alonso in second, Verstappen in third and Sainz surrounded by Red Bulls. Before the end of the first lap, Sainz attacked Verstappen, taking advantage of the Dutchman’s battery problems, but failed to overtake him.

Norris dropped to seventh place, even behind Leclerc. The race seemed to quickly stabilize and on lap four the Monegasque was very close to Perez, who in turn managed to get within Sainz’s DRS range on the next lap.

Although the first signs of degradation were beginning to show, Verstappen managed to stay less than a second behind Alonso on lap 6 with DRS enabled, and moved even closer on lap 7. The reigning champion had no problems on the long straight. passing the Spaniard, who tried unsuccessfully to hit him.

With 11 laps remaining, Verstappen took little time to open the DRS against Hamilton. The Englishman complained about his car’s cornering behavior and then, when his engineer told him Verstappen was behind him, he replied: “Leave me alone for a moment. I mean, I can see it.” Before finishing on lap 9 of 19, Hamilton blocked before entering the back straight and Verstappen overtook him on the same straight where he had done so to Alonso.

The Asturian was slower than his rivals and was followed by a small DRS train of Sainz, who in turn saw Perez attack him, Leclerc and Norris. Sainz’s tire jam seemed to give Checo a chance, but the Ferrari driver managed to stay ahead on lap 12.

This continued in the following laps, and the next one to show the car to the opponent was Leclerc with Perez at the end of the 14th lap. The Mexican complained of a lack of grip and Sainz appeared to be pushing the pace a little more to try and steal Alonso’s podium. On the back straight, Leclerc drove parallel to Checo, but there was neither room nor time to overtake.

Then, at Turn 6 of the 16th lap, Sainz attacked Alonso and a wheel-to-wheel battle began, with Sainz and Alonso engaging, allowing Checo to overtake them both. Leclerc tried to do the same and sparks flew when Sainz held onto the edge while braking at Turn 15 and Charles had to go wide of the gate.

But Alonso and Sainz collided, and while the Aston Martin driver was forced into the pits with a puncture and retired, the Ferrari driver lost pace and Leclerc fell, with whom he also collided and was forced to center the threatening Norris, without achieving a result. this is his sixth place.