2024 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix Highlights

Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen dominated the 2024 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix ahead of McLaren driver Lando Norris and team-mate Sergio Pérez despite twice having to re-establish his lead in a race interrupted by two safety car periods at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Starting from pole position after topping both qualifying and the sprint race on Saturday, the Dutchman controlled the race in commanding fashion despite two Safety Car periods being called in the space of five laps, which forced him to rebuild his sizeable lead each time. In the end, Verstappen crossed the line after 56 laps with an advantage of 14 seconds over Norris to secure his first win at the Shanghai International Circuit and his fourth victory in five races so far in 2024.

Lining up alongside Verstappen on the front row of the grid, Sergio Pérez suffered from unfortunate timing of the Safety Cars and had to fight his way back from fourth after the second period to claim the final podium position, just running out of time to challenge Norris for second.

Verstappen now leads Pérez by 25 points in the Drivers’ Championship standings ahead of the Miami Grand Prix on May 5, while Oracle Red Bull Racing extended their advantage in the Constructors’ Standings over Ferrari to 44 points.

Max Verstappen, Driver, Red Bull Racing

I think today went really well, and I was pleased with everything. We had great pace in the whole race, although, of course, with the deployment of the safety car, the gap that I had made was shortened, and we then had to gain that back. Today the car was very well balanced, every time that we needed to be quick we were and it felt much more consistent to drive in comparison to the sprint, even for the restarts. Overall, I’m really pleased with the performance that we had as a team. Every race is different in terms of emotions, but this one was delightful because the whole weekend went so well, especially considering that it was a sprint weekend, which is always much more hectic. A weekend like this is as much as you can ever hope for. A win in Shanghai was definitely on my list, so to be here and to win in front of such a fantastic crowd is very special, and I’m pleased that the race is back on the calendar.

Sergio Pérez, Driver, Red Bull Racing:

The safety car cost us a little today. It would have been close, but unfortunately, it came at the wrong time for us, put us on the back foot, and caused us to lose two places. Fighting with Charles Leclerc damaged my tyres a little too much, making it complicated. The level of degradation was a little too trying on this track to make better progress, so we struggled. I wanted more today. I did expect a little more from the race. The sprint looked very promising, but today, we couldn’t capitalise on that. We made some changes that potentially took away some of our performance. We will review those for Miami to make sure we keep this progression going to keep these better weekends. We’re having a lot stronger weekends, and it’s just a matter of now being able to lead from lap one and do our own race. Hopefully, that will come soon.

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