F1: Max Verstappen flew over the Chinese Grand Prix and won for the first time in Shanghai

The Red Bull driver confirmed his position at the start of the season with an impressive victory, despite mid-race turmoil.

The insatiable Max Verstappen. The Dutchman won his fourth race in five Grands Prix in 2024 by defeating the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday 21 April. The Red Bull Dutchman claimed his first career victory at the Shanghai circuit after undisputed dominance despite two mid-race safety cars. Nothing that would disturb the victory march of the “Supermax”, the winner ahead of the deserving Lando Norris (McLaren) and the second Red Bull Sergio Pérez.

From the first laps, the Grand Prix turned into a show of strength. Alone on his own planet, laps half a second faster than the competition, Max Verstappen relinquished the lead only during pit stops.

Parade tunes

If the final gap to Lando Norris, the author of his second podium of the season, may seem more limited than during other successes, that is solely the fault of the racing facts. Two exits from the safety car in the middle of the race led to the exhaust of the entire field, without disrupting the hierarchy.

Norris, however, took the opportunity to slot in between the two Red Bulls thanks to a strategic boost at a pit stop offered by two neutralisations.

The second was the result of a series of mistakes, the most obvious being the work of Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), who rammed the front of his car into Daniel Ricciardo’s before the race had even started. This little animation revived the race, which had been buzzing until then, and then continued its parade rhythm.

The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, fourth and fifth, finished far from the podium and off the pace of the best this Sunday. The pace that Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), finally seventh, was able to achieve after a mistake in the choice of his team’s tires during the break. Starting from 18th after missing qualifying, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) moved up in the points, to ninth place.

The points that the two Alpines came close to, without being able to enter the top 10 of their seasons, with the eleventh place of Esteban Ocon, who benefited from the technical improvements on his car.

In the drivers’ standings, Max Verstappen, winner of 21 of the last 23 Grands Prix, is slightly more comfortable with a 25-point lead (value of victory) over Sergio Pérez and 34 over Charles Leclerc.