Here is our full text transcript from the Chinese Grand Prix, the fifth round of the 2024 Formula 1 championship, which took place at the the 5.451-kilometre Shanghai International Circuit:
Here we go then, it’s the fourth competitive session of this Sprint weekend and it’s the one that matters most, welcome to race day at the Chinese Grand Prix! The lights will go out in Shanghai for the first time since 2019 and Red Bull are big favourites to take a fourth win of the 2024 F1 campaign. Unpredictability has been a theme during the week but it feels like an expected pecking order has formed coming into today. Can anyone stop pole-sitter Max Verstappen? It’s going to be tough. But you just never know in Formula 1…
Charles Leclerc will start from sixth place today and he could be a driver on the move during the 56 laps around Shanghai as his car is set up for the race. The Moneagsque has Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz just behind him in seventh and a podium must be the target for both drivers. Asked if he was nonetheless anxious about potentially being trapped in a so-called ‘DRS train’ – an effective stalemate which occurs when several cars are running within one-second of each other and therefore all able to open their respective car’s rear-wing flap for a top speed boost, lessening overtaking opportunities – on a circuit that features a 1km-long back straight, Leclerc said: “That’s the main question mark.
“If we have a DRS train, we will have to be patient and wait for the guy in front to lose the DRS. The race is longer and for sure there will be laps where people don’t have DRS and we have to take the opportunity and pass people.”
The pit lane is open with 40 minutes left until lights out. Zhou Guanyu comes onto the track and gets a huge cheer from the home crowd. The atmosphere in Shanghai has been electric all weekend and big cheers went up from the vast main grandstand as the cars took to the track for their laps to the grid.
The week after confirming he will continue racing in F1 until at least the age of 45, Fernando Alonso has underlined his continued star quality throughout the Shanghai weekend so far. Third on the Sprint grid was followed by third on the main grid for today. He doesn’t think the Aston Martin has the race pace to stay there with the faster McLarens and Ferraris starting directly behind, but one thing you can count on for sure is the wily Spaniard making life hard for his likely pursuers.
Similarly to Suzuka last time out, the teams have gone for different tyre strategies coming into today. Red Bull and Ferrari have two new sets of hard tyres left whereas Mercedes, McLaren and Fernando Alonso only have one set of hards.
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All but five are on the medium tyres to start the race. Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Logan Sargeant and Lance Stroll are on the softs with Kevin Magnussen on the hards.
Lights out and away we go at the Chinese Grand Prix! Max Verstappen holds the lead but Fernando Alonso goes dancing around the outside of Sergio Perez at Turn One to take second place! Lando Norris tucks into fourth behind Perez and Oscar Piastri is fifth.
Lap 2/56: Nico Hulkenberg made a superb start to get ahead of both Ferraris into seventh place but Charles Leclerc overtakes the Haas driver at the end of the first lap and Carlos Sainz follows just seconds later into Turn One.
Lap 3/56: “This guy is moving like a **** everywhere on the brakes!” reports an unimpressed Alex Albon behind Esteban Ocon in the Alpine. They run 12th and 13th
Lap 4/56: Fernando Alonso has Sergio Perez all over him and just like the Sprint, the Aston Martin straight line speed looks very strong. Even with DRS, Perez can’t find a way past Alonso yet. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are just behind to round out the top five.
Lap 5/56: It’s not quite the storming start on those softs that might have been expected, but Lewis Hamilton is at least now moving in the right direction and he’s now up into 17th. Fernando Alonso opens the door for Sergio Perez into the right-hand hairpin of Turn Six and the Red Bull driver goes down the inside. It’s a Red Bull one-two and Alonso made it easy because he’s pushing hard and hurting his tyres according to McLaren.
A day after being unimpressed by his team-mate’s driving in the Sprint, Charles Leclerc seems to get his own back at the start as you can see below with the Monegasque having none of Carlos Sainz’s attempts to go around the outside of him at the start. But that cost them both though – they dropped behind Russell after this and stay right behind the Mercedes.
Lap 7/56: Verstappen leads by six seconds from Perez, with Alonso 2.5 seconds adrift and Norris is now just half a second behind. This battle for the podium could go on for the remainder of the race. Piastri is fifth and Russell in sixth, with the Ferraris biding their time in seventh and eighth. Lando Norris goes down the inside of Fernando Alonso at the Turn Six hairpin to take third place. Great move from Norris!
Lap 8/56: After dropping behind the Mercedes at the start, Charles Leclerc is now trying to crank up the pressure to find a way back past George Russell for sixth. It’s costing Ferrari as they are now 4s behind what is now the final podium position held by Norris. Brilliant overtake from Charles Leclerc as he swoops around the outside of George Russell at Turn One to take sixth place. “His car is coming to life and they are really picking up the pace,” says Sky Sports F1’s Nico Rosberg.
Lap 10/56: Just a short stint on those soft compound tyres for Lewis Hamilton, who is in the pits to switch on to the mediums. He rejoins back in 19th but Mercedes will be hoping to undercut a number of cars ahead eventually.
Lap 11/56: George Russell is defending from Carlos Sainz like his F1 career depends on it as he covers the inside into Turn Six. Sainz moving up to seventh feels like an inevitability though right now.
Lap 12/56: Charles Leclerc squeezes by Oscar Piastri, despite a late jink to the right from the McLaren driver as he tries to defend into Turn 14. The Monegasque is up to fifth place now.
Lap 14/56: Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez pit on the same lap because there was around 10 seconds between them. Both drivers are on the hards. Verstappen is in fourth and Perez in sixth but they will be back in first and second when everyone pits for the first time.
Lap 17/56: Oscar Piastri was losing a lot of time towards the end of that first stint, around 1.5 seconds slower than McLaren team-mate Lando Norris. He’s now in ninth on new medium tyres, with Stroll and Russell just ahead.
Lap 20/56: Max Verstappen leads and is on course for his first win in China. Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc are second and third but appear to be on a one-stop as they have not pitted yet. Sergio Perez is fourth, having pitted already, and is three seconds behind Leclerc. Then comes Fernando Alonso in fifth, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, Lance Stroll, Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg. Piastri and Sainz were the most recent drivers to pit in the top 10.
Lap 21/56: And we do get a Virtual Safety Car, around 90 seconds after Bottas stopped. This could change the race.
Lap 22/56: Lando Norris isn’t in yet under the VSC for his stop, but Charles Leclerc is. Could this be decisive in their battle?
Lap 22/56: Lewis Hamilton boxes for new hard tyres and is now in 17th place, ahead of Pierre Gasly. Lance Stroll is in too and drops to 13th place. Lap 23/56: The good news for the McLaren is that the Virtual Safety Car period has continued, so he hasn’t lost out by pitting one lap later than Leclerc. He pits at the second attempt, moves onto the hard, and rejoins behind the two Red Bulls in third – and still ahead of Leclerc. But what has this VSC timing done for those planning a one-stop? Can Norris an Leclerc do 32-33 laps on these tyres?
Lap 23/56: Valtteri Bottas’ car might be stuck in gear and the marshals are struggling to move it off the track. And now we have the full Safety Car, so everyone might come into the pit lane.
Lap 24/56: As expected, plenty of drivers come into the pits including the Red Bulls. Max Verstappen’s lead is vanished and Sergio Perez has lost out amongst all of this because he’s behind Norris and Leclerc. Piastri is fifth, Sainz in sixth and Alonso pits too so is now seventh.
Lap 25/56: Oscar Piastri has just lost three positions in the second McLaren by pitting under the Safety Car, but they had to do it so he was left out of sequence on tyre wear in relation to everyone else.
Lap 26/56: The Safety Car is coming in at the end of this lap, so a restart is coming up with Verstappen in the lead.
Lap 27/56: Verstappen gets a good jump on Norris as he goes for it out of the penultimate corner. Perez is putting Leclerc under pressure but there are no moves into Turn One. And the Safety Car is deployed for a second time due to debris and replays show another incident between Stroll and Ricciardo. Replays show Lance Stroll hits the rear of Daniel Ricciardo on the first Safety Car restart at the hairpin, lifting the RB into the air.
Lap 29/56: Fernando Alonso has got in front of Carlos Sainz amid the chaos on that restart, so is now in fifth on those soft tyres.
Lap 32/56: It looks like a clean restart this time as Verstappen leads the field away. Alonso on those softs is looking racy and is on the back of Perez in the battle for fourth.
Lap 32/56: Lewis Hamilton has finally moved into the top 10 for the first time today with a move on Daniel Ricciardo at the restart. Nico Hulkenberg also got ahead of the RB, with the Haas now up in ninth. Ricciardo on his mediums and after that clout from Stroll then drops behind Ocon and Albon.
Lap 34/56: Lance Stroll has been clobbered with a 10s sanction for ramming into the back of Daniel Ricciardo at the hairpin. Kevin Magnussen has the same sanction for spinning around Tsunoda a few corners later. Logan Sargeant completes a hat-trick of 10s penalty, although the Williams gets his for a Safety Car restart infringement.
Lap 34/56: Daniel Ricciardo is out of the Chinese Grand Prix due to the damage on his car from the incident with Lance Stroll.
Lap 35/56: A decent first few laps since the restart for Lando Norris. Yes, Max Verstappen has predictably moved quickly clear again – he leads by 2.5s – but Norris is 3s ahead of Leclerc. Perez remains fourth although is on the Ferrari’s gearbox.
Lap 37/56: Charles Leclerc is doing a wonderful job of keeping Sergio Perez at bay. Perez is clearly in the faster car but Leclerc has just enough pace to give the Red Bull driver some dirty air and have enough of a gap going onto the back straight.
Lap 39/56: As Nico Rosberg said, Sergio Perez really needed to get that move done on Charles Leclerc ASAP to have any chance of closing down Lando Norris in these closing stages. Perez finally does move ahead with a nice move down the inside of the Ferrari on the brakes at Turn Six. He then covered off Leclerc’s attempts to come back at him towards the next corner. The gap to Norris in second is now 5.4s.
Lap 44/56: Finally Alonso comes into the pits for a set of medium tyres. He’s down in 12th but will be on a charge in these last 13 laps.
Lap 47/56: Here comes Fernando Alonso. New fastest lap, overtakes Alex Albon and gets by his former team-mate Esteban Ocon on the inside of Turn Eight.
Lap 48/56: Lewis Hamilton is in eighth place and 1.5 seconds behind Oscar Piastri. He’s got Fernando Alonso closing in though as the Aston Martin driver overtakes Nico Hulkenberg. The gap between Hamilton and Alonso is two seconds.
Lap 50/56: Well, maybe Ferrari were right to be concerned. Two cars down for Fernando Alonso in the space of the lap as he follows up his move on Hamilton with one on Piastri. He’s back into seventh. George Russell in the lead Mercedes is 11s up the road but Alonso was 2 seconds+ faster last time around.
Lap 51/56: Out in front, Max Verstappen leads and barring a reliability failure, he will win this race. Verstappen is 11 seconds ahead of Lando Norris, who is five seconds in front of Sergio Perez. Charles Leclerc is another four seconds back and Carlos Sainz is 10 seconds adrift of his Ferrari team-mate.
Russell looks to have enough over Alonso. Lap 52/56: George Russell is then 2.6s behind Sainz, with Alonso catching the Mercedes but probably not at a sufficient rate to make a late battle of it for sixth.
Lap 55/56: Max Verstappen is still out in front and the top seven cars look pretty set. Verstappen is 13 seconds in front of Norris and Perez still can’t make any inroads at five seconds behind the McLaren driver. Then comes the Ferrari cars of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, with Alonso chasing Russell on those fresh tyres.
Lap 56/56: One final tour of the Shanghai International Circuit to come for Max Verstappen to add Chinese GP victory to his ever-increasing roll of honours. A late spark of concern for the dominant race leader though, who asks Red Bull to check his tyre pressures after fearing he ran over debris. The team tell him all looks ok, however.
It’s a first win in Shanghai for Max Verstappen, he wins the Chinese Grand Prix! That’s 26 different tracks now Verstappen has won at and he finishes comfortably in front of Lando Norris, who takes the 15th F1 podium of his career. Sergio Perez is third, with Charles Leclerc in fourth and Carlos Sainz in fifth for Ferrari.
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