Max Verstappen has achieved his 58th Grand Prix victory in a dominant and controllable fashion, ahead of Mclaren’s Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez at the Chinese GP.
This was Verstappen’s maiden victory in Shanghai after Formula 1 skipped China on the calendar for 4 seasons due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez was satisfied with his fourth podium in five races this season, however, the Mexican stated that the race could have ended on a more positive note for his side of the garage.
“Obviously it’s a good, good result to finish off the weekend with three 2-3 places.
“But today I wanted more. I did expect a little bit more from the race.”
At the race start, Perez lost second place to Alonso, but soon overtook him to regain a spot.
Perez’s race was slightly compromised in the middle stint when the Mexican was stuck behind Ferrari’s Leclerc after the Safety Car period.
From that moment, Red Bull’s driver was unable to close onto Mclaren’s Lando Norris.
“I think we did some changes and that potentially took us away some of the performance.”
Lando Norris
It was the second podium of the season and the 15th overall for the Mclaren’s Briton, a result which came under surprise as Norris himself stated.
“I’m very surprised. I think our pace took a big improvement compared to yesterday.”
Norris commented how the Woking-based outfit did not expect a podium for Sunday’s race at any cost.
“Every bit of evidence that we had in terms of the race yesterday pointed no reason for us to believe that we would have good pace today.”
Moreover, Norris contributed a better pace on Sunday to a lower track temperature and windier conditions at the Chinese GP. Ultimately, the Briton managed to fend off Perez to achieve the best result of the season so far.
Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen, meanwhile, achieved another victory in the 2024 campaign by finishing 13.7 seconds ahead of Lando Norris.
“I think we improved the car a little bit, you know, from the Sprint race yesterday into qualifying and I could feel that also today in the race where I think it was just a little bit more consistent to drive.”
Despite Shanghai being known as a track that is harsher for the tires, front ones especially, the Dutchman stated that he is happy with all three tire compounds.
This just strengthens the thesis of Red Bull’s terrifying tire management with a continuous strong race pace.
Albeit a safe victory for the Red Bull’s Dutchman, he needed to control the race following two Safety Car restarts.
“I just built up quite a lead already. But on the other end also, I wasn’t too worried because I felt really good with the car.
“I knew that I just needed to have a clean restart and then just focus on myself because it looked like we had a bit more pace compared to the others.”
In the overall drivers standings, Max Verstappen leads by 25 points ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez. Lando Norris, on the other hand, closes the top 5 being placed behind Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.