Key events
Lap 21/56: Valtteri Bottas has stuttered off the track at turn 11; engine failure by the sounds, as Sainz tries and fails to take on Stroll. We could be getting a safety car here … two yellow flags at the moment
Lap 20/56: Right, here’s the latest standings: 1 Verstappen 2 Norris 3 Leclerc 4 Perez 5 Alonso 6 Russell 7 Piastri 8 Stroll 9 Sainz 10 Hulkenburg
Hamilton watch: he’s 13th.
Lap 19/56: Verstappen is around 0.6sec behind Norris at the start of the lap but, just at the end of the straight, the champion passes him effortlessly. Normal service is resumed. Verstappen leads from Norris.
Lap 18/56: Norris and Leclerc are the two front runners who haven’t pitted and there’s talk they might go long and even try a one-stop race. The MacLaren man still leads ahead of Verstappen, with Leclerc in third.
Lap 17/56: Piastri pits, having been struggling overt the past few laps. His MacLaren teammate stays out though. Perez meanwhile locks up trying to take on Sainz, so the latter remains fourth. But Perez gets ahead of him at the second attempt. Sainz pits.
Lap 16/56: Verstappen takes on Leclerc at the hairpin, effortlessly, and Leclerc isn’t going to dispute it. The champion is back up to second behind Norris, who unlike him hasn’t pitted.
Lap 15/56: Verstappen, having switched to hard compound tyres, moves ahead of Piastri to take third. Hamilton is up into 14th.
Lap 14/56: The two Red Bulls pit, handing Norris the lead, Verstappen coming out in fourth, Perez sixth. Norris is driving well here, though you’d expect Verstappen to reclaim the lead in due course.
Lap 13/56: Right, amid this flurry of pitting, here’s how it looks: 1 Verstappen 2 Perez 3 Norris 4 Leclerc 5 Piastri 6 Sainz 7 Ricciardo 8 Magnussen 9 Alonso 10 Russell.
Hamilton moves ahead of Tsunada into 15th with a fine, assertive piece of driving, spying and taking advantage of a gap.
Lap 12/56: Alonso and Russell pit, swiftly. Verstappen leads by 9sec now, as Gasly has a bit of a clanger in the pits, almost striking mechanics and one takes a tumble.
Lap 11/56: “That was the worst tyre” it sounds like Hamilton is saying, back in 19th, as the focus returns to Russell’s defence of seventh from Sainz’s pursuit. Only a matter of time you’d think. And Leclerc overhauls Piastri to move into fifth.
Lap 10/56: Russell is struggling with his tyres. and has Sainz breathing down his neck as well.
Hamilton and Stroll have pitted too, the soft tyres not lasting well for the former. And the stewards will take no further action over the Hulkenburg/Albon incident.
Lap 9/56: Leclerc, who’s finished in the top four in every race this season, has work to do after a groggy start and after one attempt utilises DRS to zip ahead of Russell into sixth.
And an early pit stop for Zhou, Samoda and Hulkenburg.
Lap 8/56: Smart work from Norris as he nudges in front of Alonso, blocks him off adeptly and puts himself in a podium position.
So this is how they stand: 1 Verstappen 2 Perez 3 Norris 4 Alonso 5 Piastri 6 Russell 7 Leclerc 8 Sainz 9 Stroll 10 Hulkenburg. Hamilton is back in 17th.
Lap 7/56: An incident between Gasly and Albon has been reported, with the latter alleged to have forced the former off the track. That’s being looked at. Verstappen now leads by 5.8 seconds …
Lap 6/56: And Perez duly goes down the inside at turn six and gets the place back from Alonso. It’s a Red Bull one-two once more.
Lap 5/56: Also toiling is Daniel Ricciardo, who started 12th but has lost three places to 15th. Up top, Perez is closing on Alonso for second, but hasn’t chosen to make a move yet. This could be the real quiz.
Lap 4/56: Hamilton makes a move, overhauling Zhou for 18th. Two well-supported drivers duking it out right at the back.
Lap 3/56: Verstappen meanwhile is absolutely streaking ahead already; he has 2.5sec on Alonso, with Perez third, Norris fourth and Piastri fifth.
Lap 2/56: Stroll has overtaken Hulkenburg into ninth. Hamilton sounds disconsolate and unhappy with his tyres over the radio.
Lap 1/56: Back in the pack, Hamilton loses a place already, dropping to 19th and Zhou overhauls Magnussen to the delight of the crowd but loses it swiftly. The Ferraris had a shocking start, both dropping a place.
Verstappen holds his lead but Alonso nudges into second straight off. That was a consummate piece of driving by the Spaniard
Lights out and away we go!
Off they go
Tyre news: the front 10 are all starting off on medium tyres; Hamilton, with much ground to make up, starts on softs. And they’re off on the formation lap.
Max Verstappen is forewarning of drizzle over the radio …
Minor grid tweak:
The Alonso car situation looks a little more troubling. The mechanics are still working on that floor – a bit of stone damage, we’re told. But this is the last thing you need 10 minutes out from the start when you’re third on the grid.
A quick word with local hero Zhou: “The energy [from the crowd] has been outrageous from the very first day, I’m gonna try my heart out. I’m confident we can make our way forward.” He starts 16th.
A bit of minor surgery is being carried out on the floor of Fernando Alonso’s car. Nothing major, by the likes, but can be a bit concerning. The Spaniard starts third on the grid and will fancy this.
And now, the Chinese national anthem
The general pre-race prognosis is that this is likely to be a two-stop race. The weather is overcast but dry.
Lewis Hamilton speaks: And blames himself for yesterday’s mishap. I should have been Q2, it’s entirely my fault. The team are doing a great job with what we’ve got and George [Russell] did a great job but I’ll try to make up for it today.” He’s got quite the following in Shanghai too today. “[This crowd] are the best, they’ve been so supportive for so many years, so it’s great to be back. The British GP is special and unique but they always bring some great energy here and I love this track.”
Will Verstappen’s dominance end up deterring new fans? Lando Norris fears it might:
“If you see the same driver winning every single time without a fight then of course it does start to become boring and that is obvious. You have got one of the best drivers ever in Formula One, in one of the most dominant cars and it is a combination that is deadly.”
Preamble
Morning/afternoon everyone. Much has changed since China last held a grand prix, in 2019, in pre-Covid times and before the cementing of the Verstappen/Red Bull supremacy. And for all Red Bull’s off-track turmoil, that supremacy was evident again in qualifying on Saturday, with the defending champion taking poll and pipping Lewis Hamilton to win the sprint race.
Hamilton then proceeded to have a nightmare in qualifying, out in Q1, and facing an uphill task today just to score any point at all from a starting place of 18th on the grid. He does at least have fond memories of this circuit, having won here six times, three times more than anyone else. Last time he won, five years ago, he had Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel for company with him on the podium. Times change.
Anyway, back in the present, there’s a good deal of home enthusiasm for F1’s return to the Shanghai International Circuit (and a home driver to cheer, in Zhou Guanyu) and there should be plenty to look out for over the course of today’s 56 laps.
Here’s how they line up:
1 Max Verstappen 2 Sergio Pérez 3 Fernando Alonso 4 Lando Norris 5 Oscar Piastri 6 Charles Leclerc 7 Carlos Sainz 8 George Russell 9 Nico Hulkenburg 10 Valtteri Bottas 11 Lance Stroll 12 Daniel Ricciardo 13 Esteban Ocan 14 Alexander Albon 15 Pierre Gasly 16 Zhou Guanyu 17 Kevin Magnussen 18 Lewis Hamilton 19 Yuki Tsunoda 20 Logan Sergeant
Lights out 8am BST.
