Formula 1 finally headed back to China after the COVID-19 pandemic, where home hero Zhou Guanyu was cheered on passionately – moving the Sauber driver and 2004 Fernando Alonso fan considerably.
Zhou was granted a post-race celebration on the grid behind the podium-sharing Red Bull drivers – Lando Norris absent from the initial congratulatory shots between the dominant Max Verstappen and the shakier Sergio Perez having been unaware he was supposed to head there on the in-lap.
Such scenes for Zhou are unusual and suggests F1 is still working hard to crack the Chinese market at what is effectively a second attempt in 20 years.
Verstappen winning commandingly is, of course, not rare. But in one of his two Shanghai victories there was one infrequent development. That, plus plenty more, features in our assessment of the main takeaways from the season’s fifth round – including its first sprint event.
1. Verstappen so fast he could even test things in-race
Verstappen had everything under control in China
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Verstappen’s run to a fourth GP win from five rounds was again utterly straightforward for the world champion. Only the virtual and actual safety car activations erased what surely would’ve been a devastating main race victory margin.
When asked if he had had any interesting moments in that run, where he aced the start and both restarts ahead of Norris, he replied: “I locked up in the second restart into Turn 6, I think, a little bit, so that was not ideal.
“Then I threw a tear-off away, which I think I could hear on the intake. It was flapping around hitting my helmet. I don’t know where it ended up. And with two laps ago, I think I drove over a little bit of debris before Turn 14. So that was a little bit scary, because with all the tyres it’s easy to have a puncture at high speed when you drive over carbon. That was it, I think.”
The end to his sprint race, where Verstappen had an 8s gap with four laps remaining that was 13s by the end, featured the world champion testing a new Red Bull brake balance setting. He declared a show of supreme strength in depth from F1’s current best squad “good everywhere except Turn 14 – too forward”.
2. Mystery hard tyre pace loss undid Ferrari’s GP potential…
Ferrari struggled more than anyone expected across the weekend
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
So far in 2024, Ferrari had been Red Bull’s…
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