Official 1 Journal Formula 1 Grand Prix Round Up- China

Before the 1st Chinese Grand Prix in half a decade could begin there was drama for Fernando Alonso who damaged the floor of this Aston Martin by taking to much kerb on his lap to the grid. Luckily for Alonso the Aston Martin mechanics did a great job of repairing the damage before the race start.  Max Verstappen started on Pole ahead of team mate Sergio Perez followed by Alonso & Norris in 3rd & 4th and Lewis Hamilton had it all to do in his Mercedes after only Qualifying in 18th. 

The Chinese Grand Prix 

Verstappen & Perez got a great start but it was Alonso who got the best get away and he was straight onto the back of Perez before passing the Redbull to take 2nd place, Norris passed his Mclaren team mate Piastri for 4th place and after the 2 Ferrari's almost came together at turn 2 letting Russell and Hulkenberg through into 5th & 6th they had both dropped 2 places by turn 5 and Zhou put a great move on Magnussen to move up to 17th. The Ferrari's didn't stay behind for long and Leclerc was back past Hulkenberg by turn 14 and as the first lap ended Verstappen already had a 1.6 second lead over Alonso in 2nd. 
Lap 2 Russell was closing on the back of Piastri as Magnussen took 17th back from Zhou and Hulkenberg fell back as he was passed by Sainz and Sargeant. Zhou fell back to 19th when he was passed by Hamilton on lap 3.
Team mates Ocon & Gasly swapped positions for 12th leaving Gasly open to attack from Albon behind them, Albon aggressive with the Alpine pushing him onto the run off but the Stewards deemed it fair after the incident was referred to them. 

Lap 5 Perez had caught Alonso and passed the Spaniard into Turn 6 with team mate Max Verstappen over 5 seconds ahead in the lead. Norris was the next man chasing down Alonso and just 1 lap after getting into the DRS zone passed the Aston Martin into turn 14 with little fight back from Alonso who was struggling on his Medium tyres after pushing hard early to keep Perez behind.
Lap 9 Leclerc finally caught and passed Russell for 5th after letting the Mercedes past in the first few corners of the race squabbling with  his team mate Sainz who also passed Russell 2 laps later after some great battling around the lap when the Mercedes dove into the pits reacting to the early pit stop of Alonso his closest rival on track. Both swapped their dead Medium tyres for a fresh set of the same. Gasly also pit but his stop was far from ideal when a tyre that wasn't secured properly came off the car as Gasly was trying to pull away from his pit box and hit one of his mechanics in the chest and face. Very luckily the Alpine team member escaped without serious injury but a very scary moment none the less. 

Lap 14 Verstappen had enough of a lead over Perez in 2nd that Redbull felt confident double stacking the cars in the pits, making the very difficult maneuver look easy, with both going onto the Hard tyres  for their 2nd stint. Verstappen rejoined in 4th behind Piastri and Perez in 6th behind Sainz. It wasn't long before Verstappen passed Piastri who was lapping 1.6 seconds a lap slower than his team mate who was in the lead of the race after the Redbull pit stops. With Norris & Leclerc both feeling happy on the Medium tyres they started the race on it was decided for both that they would try and go for the difficult 1 stop strategy as Perez passed Sainz at turn 15 just before the Ferrari dove into the pit lane coming back out in 10th on the Hard tyres. 
Lap 19 Verstappen retook the lead from Norris with very little resistant, Norris knowing that fighting Max would only hurt his tyres and any chance of a podium. 

Lap 21 Bottas was forced to pulled on the run off of turn 11 when the engine in his Stake Sauber car blew and got stuck in gear. Initially a Virtual Safety car was called just as Lando Norris passed the pitlane entry meaning he was unable to take advantage of slow moving cars behind and pit without losing as much time, Leclerc however did make it into the pits to take his cheap stop but luckily for Norris it was taking longer than normal to recover Bottas' car because it was stuck in gear and the VSC lasted long enough for Norris to pit on the next lap and come out ahead of Leclerc before a full Safety car was brought out on lap 23. Also in Norris' favor was Redbull's decision to re pit the 2 Redbull cars(again beautifully double stacking them) bringing Max back out in the lead but more importantly Perez down in 4th behind Norris( now 2nd) & Leclerc (now 3rd).  

Lap 27 Racing resumed with Verstappen building a big enough for there to be no challenge from Norris into the 1st corner. Perez was straight onto the back of Leclerc looking to make the places he lost pitting back as quickly as possible. Further back it was not such a clean restart with Lance Stroll who ran into the back of Ricciardo HARD, hard enough to lift the RB off the ground and push it into the back of Piastri ahead of him. It was a dangerous crash from Stroll and shortly after he was handed a 10 second penalty for the incident that left both Ricciardo & Piastri with defuser damage that ruined their races. Also coming together at the restart was Tsunoda and Magnussen who aftera short battle came together when Magnussen rammed the RB of Tsunoda forcing him to retire and bring out another Safety car.    

The 2nd Safety car returned to the pits at the end of lap 31 and as Vertsappen lead the grid across the line to start lap 32 the track was finally green again. Verstappen built a decent gap by the 1st corner for Norris' not to challenge again, this time all the cars made it round without incident but the damage from his hit from Stroll was really showing itself as the Aussie fell back being passed by Hulkenberg, Ocon & Albon before retiring the car on lap 33 as Magnussen was given a 10 second penalty for his contact with Tsunoda and Sargeant was given the same penalty for over behind the Safety car when one of the Alpines was exiting the Pits.  

Lap 34 It was Stroll & Magnussen having a mega battle swapping position back and forth corner for corner in a great display of racing despite their previous conduct in the race and resulting penalties with Stroll ultimately taking 16th position from the HAAS. 
Lap 38 Perez was on the back of Leclerc, following the Ferrari closely for another lap before passing the Ferrari at turn 7 for 3rd posotion just 5 seconds behind Norris in 2nd with 18 laps to go. 
Hamilton & Hulkenberg went wheel to wheel for 9th position with Hulkenebrg initially keeping his position but Hamilton ultimately passing him 2 laps later at turn 7 putting Hamilton just 1.5 behind Piastri in 8th with 15 laps to catch him. 

Lap 44 Aston Marin pit Alonso for the 3rd time putting Mediums on to get hi to the end of the race with lots to do rejoining in 12th position. Meanwhile Lando Norris was doing a mga job of keeping Perez at a distance with the gap almost unchanged since the Redbull driver passed Leclerc for 3rd. The tyre change had given Alonso's car new life and in 1 lap he passed Albon(11th), and Ocon(10th) while setting the fastest lap of the race, going on to pass Hulkenberg and Hamilton by lap 50 with 5 laps to find the 11 seconds he was behind Russell in 6th.
Lap 51 Norris was still keeping Perez a respectable 5 seconds behind him as the race drew to a close and Guanyu Zhou gave the Chinese crowd something to cheer about in the closing laps passing Sargeant & Magnussen to finish 14th at his first home race. His result not really reflecting the brilliant weekend he had in China. 
Max won the race by a smaller margin than many this year 'only' 14 seconds ahead of Norris who put in a mega drive to come 2nd on a 1 stop strategy that really show cased his driver skill and tyre management skills. 
Leclerc and Sainz never seemed to have the pace today and came home in 4th and 5th with Russell holding on to 6th from a rapidly advancing Alonso behind and Lewis Hamilton was hot on the heels of Oscar Piastri in 8th as they crossed the line with Hamilton ending the day driving from 18th -9th in a car he was far from happy with. 

Chinese Grand Prix Result 

1 VER (2s)                  2 NOR (1s) +13.773
3 PER (2s) +19.610    4 LEC(1s) +23.623
5 SAI(1s) +33.983       6 RUS(2s) +38.724
7 ALO(3s) +43.414      8 PIA(2s) +56.198
9 HAM(2s) +57.986    10 HUL(2s) +60.476
11 OCO(2s) +62.812  12 ALB(2s) +65.506
13 GAS(3s) +69.223   14 ZHO(3s) +71.689
15 STR(4s) +82.786    16 MAG(2s) +87.533
17 SAR(2s) +95.110  
RIC DNF L33
TSU DNF L27
BOT DNF L21

Joanna Blackmore 
Writer @f1journal.co.uk