The rain is the star of a madman qualifying for the sprint race and Lando Norris is the best in the water in Shanghai. For this reason, he had to defend himself tooth and nail from the first position on first sprint of the season. The play didn’t go well and the winner was the usual: Max Verstappen. The Dutchman recovered from fourth position with ease, squeezing the pace without weakening his tires while the others struggled to keep the rubber. Hamilton and Pérez took the podium.
As for the Spanish, Sainz and Alonso were the stars of a good battle between the two but it was detrimental to both of them.. Fernando ended up abandoning due to contact with the Ferrari driver while Carlos gave up two places, losing time in the Asturian war.
In the beginning there were important movements. Hamilton was placed parallel to Lando and the McLaren driver tried to cling to the first position on the outside. Lewis, gaining experience, choked him until Norris left the track and returned to seventh position. So, the Mercedes driver took the lead with Alonso close behind him and the track was wet.
From behind, Sainz attacked a Verstappen who felt uncomfortable and said on the radio that his battery was not working. By lap 3 the Dutchman had lost the chance to use DRS against Alonso and then Carlos hit the rear wing, even throwing the car at him in turn 1 to no avail.
The damage is very high. On the sixth lap (of 19 in total) the pace was one second slower than at the start. That’s where Red Bull performs best and Verstappen started to squeeze Alonso while Pérez was Carlos in the fight for fourth position. Max, on the seventh lap, turned on DRS on the back straight with more than a kilometer to go and passed Fernando to take second and follow Hamilton.
It didn’t take long for him to become a leader. The Red Bull driver started fourth but on lap nine he overtook Hamilton with a higher pace in the Mercedes and went straight for another victory. At the back, the slowest of all the leaders was Alonso. Aston Martin, accustomed to defending itself in all races this season, formed a train of cars where the Ferraris, Pérez and Norris were close together.
Despite having superior cars that could use DRS, Alonso was able to hold off Carlos. Everything is single file without being overtaken. Desperate was Leclerc after Pérez tried to overtake on the outside of Pérez with better traction but he couldn’t pass.
The war between Sainz and Alonso ended badly
Trouble came on lap 16. SAinz threw the Ferrari at Sainz at the end of the first sector. Alonso clung to the outside and eventually regained the overtake in lane 10. Two lengths were gone and he took advantage. Pérez to seize the position of the two and left.
Sainz will not stop and before reaching the back straight he passes Alonso again. Again they went off the perfect route and he took advantage of that Leclerc to also overtake the Asturian. In fact, the Monegasque was also close to passing Sainz but the Spaniard extended the brakes from 14th and two Ferraris side by side.
On the next lap, Leclerc was able to pass his Maranello teammate to take fourth. while, Alonso went into the pits and later they asked him on the radio to remove the car. A touch in the fight with Sainz caused him to puncture and KO left him. A very good fight by two Spaniards that was very damaging for both of them.
There was no movement at the front and Verstappen crossed the finish line without a problem to take the first sprint of the season. Hamilton recovered the good feeling in second place and Pérez closed the podium.
In sixth position came a cautious Lando Norris who didn’t even finish on the podium despite starting in first position. Oscar Piastri finished seventh while Russell, the only driver to start the sprint on soft tyres, moved up to eighth position.
Zhou, the local idol, had a magnificent race but was left without a spoil in front of his fans.
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.
