|
A win and a pole
position on the same day for Max Verstappen. The Dutchman made a clean sweep
of it on Saturday in Shanghai, winning the first Sprint Race of the season
in the morning before taking his first ever pole position at this track in
the afternoon. It was the 37th pole of his career and his Red Bull team’s
one hundredth.
Verstappen’s best lap of 1’33”660, set on his last Q3
run, was less than two tenths slower than Pirelli’s simulation based on data
obtained from the teams. His team-mate Sergio Perez (1’33”982) joins him on
the front row, while the second row features the Aston Martin of Fernando
Alonso (1’34”148) and the McLaren of Lando Norris (1’34”165).
After
starting the Sprint Race from fourth on the grid, Max took just nine laps to
work his way to the front, passing Alonso and then Hamilton before taking
off for his eighth win from 13 Sprint starts. On the virtual podium for the
“short” race, he was joined by Hamilton and Perez following some exciting
duels over the final few laps, involving Alonso, Perez and the Ferrari pair
of Sainz and Leclerc. The two Spaniards came off worst with Carlos finishing
fourth, having sustained front wing damage in a collision with his fellow
countryman, who also had to pit because of a puncture picked up when they
touched.
THE DAY ON
TRACK
Two colours clearly dominated today’s two track sessions at the Shanghai
International Circuit. In the Sprint Race, the yellow medium compound tyre
was the outright favourite, used by 19 of the 20 drivers, the only exception
being George Russell, whose Mercedes team opted to make the most of the
additional grip provided by the red Soft in the opening laps.
Naturally, the C4 was the star of qualifying, with a single splash of yellow
on the list of tyres used, courtesy of Sainz who ran the Medium for his
first Q1 run.
Verstappen was presented with the Pirelli Pole Position
Award by Wu Chun, now a film actor and prior to that a singer with boyband
Mandopop Fahrenheit. He has starred in several Taiwanese films and TV
programmes and has one of the biggest followings on Chinese social network,
Weibo. |
|
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“The second day of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend was really busy with the
new format providing plenty of interest for the spectators, who once again
today packed out the grandstands. The Sprint Race clearly demonstrated the
good performance level of the Medium tyre and thanks to Russell, we saw that
the Soft cannot be discounted as a possible compound to use in the race. It
could indeed be an ideal solution for the first stint for those wishing to
pit early to exploit the undercut, which is very effective here, or maybe in
the closing stages of the race to try and make up some places if a driver
finds himself behind others on older and therefore less effective tyres.
“Considering the high level of degradation seen so far in yesterday’s
free practice and today’s Sprint, a two-stop is clearly the quickest
strategy. A mix of C3 and C2 is the best on paper but, as mentioned
previously, the C4 could also come into play. In terms of wear, the tyre
requiring the most care is the front left, but the rears could also be given
a hard time.” |
