The Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull), triple world champion and leader of the Formula One World Championship, seeks to celebrate his first victory in China, in a Grand Prix which returns to the calendar after a five-year absence and will be held at the Shanghai circuit, home to the first sprint format weekend of the season.
After scoring the Japanese Grand Prix two weeks ago at Suzuka, ‘Mad Max’ raised his number of victories in the premier class to 57, bettering his own mark of third in history: surpassed only by German Michael Schumacher – with 91 victories – and the other seven-time world champion, the Englishman Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who played ‘God Save The Queen’ 103 times after an F1 race. But none of them took place in China, in a Grand Prix that debuted in 2004 and became commonplace until the covid-19 pandemic, especially difficult in that country, halted the journey of a test that was the first race to ‘ fall on the 2020 calendar.
Since 2019, F1 has not featured at the Shanghai circuit, a 5,451-metre track with 16 corners – five on the left – which this weekend will host the first of six sprint formats to be held this year. The others are Miami (USA) -two weeks later-, Austria, United States, Brazil and Qatar.
After Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) achieved an epic triumph in Australia – just two weeks after undergoing emergency surgery for appendicitis – Red Bull returned things to normal in Japan, where it signed its third ‘double’ of the year, which it finished for the third time. time Mexican Sergio Pérez, runner-up last year and second overall. In a race where the talented driver from Madrid -third at the finish line-, the only one to challenge the hegemony of the powerful Austrian team in the last two seasons, signed his twenty-first podium in F1, the third in three. races he contested this year.
Another Spaniard, Fernando Alonso -who is the most requested driver in the press conferences before the Grand Prix, since last Thursday announced his renewal, at least until the end of 2026, with Aston Martin-, put in another surprising performance to finished sixth two weeks ago at Suzuki.
After winning at the circuit owned by his motorist, Honda – which will become Aston Martin from 2026 -, Verstappen leads the World Championship with 77 points, thirteen more than ‘Checo’ and 18 ahead of fellow Monegasque Charles Leclerc in Sainz’s Ferrari: fourth in the competition, with 55 units. Alonso, in the second youth at 42 years old, is eighth, with 24 points. The same as the Englishman George Russell (Mercedes), who, according to the positions, occupies seventh place overall.
red bull It also leads the Constructors’ World Championship, with 141 points, 21 more than Ferrari; while Aston Martin – “it was a natural decision: to continue the race and to continue doing it with this team,” explained the brilliant Asturian driver in the video conference in which Efe participated and in which he announced his renew – is fifth, with 33. Just one less than Mercedes.
The sprint format has been changed compared to last year. After the first and only free practice, qualifying for the sprint, the ‘sprint shootout’, will be held on Friday (instead of the one decided by the Sunday race grid).
The reduced test – which is still a third of the race route – will be held on Saturday morning, hours before ‘normal’ qualifying. That sets the ‘pol’ for the statistics and that will dictate the starting line-up for Sunday’s race. Which, in the case of Shanghai, is planned for a total of 56 laps, to complete a total of 305.2 kilometers.
The sprint continues to distribute additional points, among the first eight classified: eight will go to the winner; seven the second, six the third; and so on, up to the eighth, adding up to one.
In Shanghai we will ride with tires from the intermediate compound range, that is: C2 (hard, distinguished by the white stripe), C3 (medium, yellow stripe) and C4 (soft, red).
No one can match Hamilton’s six victories in China, where Alonso achieved two of his 32 F1 victories: in 2005, the year of his first title; and in 2013, when he achieved his penultimate victory in the premier category. Only a month before achieving the last one so far, in the Spanish Grand Prix of that year, which took place in Montmeló (Barcelona), where the tenth of the 24 races of the World Championship will take place on June 23.
Sir Lewis was the last winner at this track. In 2019. The day ‘Mad Max’ achieved the best result here, finishing fourth. A position the Dutch sports super-predator wants to improve this weekend, if possible, for now.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
