28 AUTOSPORT.COM 18 APRIL 2019RACE CENTRE CHINESE GP
LEWIS HAMILTON SEBASTIAN VETTEL PIERRE GASLYDANIEL RICCIARDO ROMAIN GROSJEAN LANDO NORRISVALTTERI BOTTAS CHARLES LECLERC MAX VERSTAPPENNICO HULKENBERG KEVIN MAGNUSSEN CARLOS SAINZ JRMERCEDES FERRARI RED BULL
RENAULT HAAS MCLAREN
From Friday
practice, Bottas
looked the better
of the Mercedes
drivers, was more
at home with the
characteristics of
the car, and he set two
laps good enough for
pole. But wheelspin as
he crossed the painted
startline cost him the
lead and thereafter he
didn’t quite have the
pace Hamilton did.Hulkenberg
was pipped
by Ricciardo
in qualifying,
although he would
have been ahead by a
couple of tenths had
he nailed it in Q3. He
lost a place at the
start, and his two-stop
strategy couldn’t play
out as he retired after
16 laps with a software
problem related to the
upgraded MGU-K.A tricky weekend
for Leclerc, who
was on the back
foot after Friday
practice problems. He
was kicking himself for
not beating Vettel in
qualifying after making
mistakes. He jumped
Vettel at Turn 1, but
team orders and poor
strategy set him back
and meant he was
never close enough
to attack Verstappen.Magnussen
won the Haas
qualifying battle
thanks to being
0.006 seconds faster in
Q2, with neither driver
posting a time in the
final part of qualifying.
He was again baffled
by the lack of pace in
the race as both
drivers struggled to
keep the tyres alive
and slipped out of
points contention.Verstappen
might have
beaten the
Ferraris in
qualifying but for
missing his second Q3
run thanks to traffic,
which he could have
avoided had the team
been more insistent.
Formation-lap spin
aside, his race was
exemplary and he had
the speed to force the
issue at both pitstops.Had a 0.444s
advantage over
Norris in
qualifying, and
certainly used his
knowledge of the
circuit to good effect.
His race was ruined
by being hit by Kvyat
at Turn 6, but his pace
thereafter suggested
that a run at the points
would have been on
the cards had that
not happened.This weekend
wasn’t easy for
Hamilton, who
struggled to
match Bottas on Friday
and was all at sea with
the car on Saturday
morning. He improved
in qualifying, but
Bottas’s last-corner
speed prevented him
nicking pole. Took the
lead at the start and
used first-stint pace to
build a decisive lead.Ricciardo knew
he still had work
to do at the
Bahrain test,
even after working on
getting on top of the
car, specifically to
avoid overdriving on
corner entry. The
progress was clear
as he managed to
shade Hulkenberg in
qualifying, then control
the ‘Class B’ race from
start to finish.Vettel was the
quicker of
Ferrari’s drivers
through much of
practice, only to come
close to falling behind
Leclerc in qualifying.
He dropped to fourth
after having to take
the outside line into
Turn 1. Once ordered
past Leclerc, he initially
didn’t pull away but
went on to make
sure of third place.Ended up behind
Magnussen on
the grid thanks
to being very
slightly slower in Q2,
although he seemed
to have a slight edge
on underlying pace.
In the race, made a go
of scoring a point and
was the best of the
midfield two-stoppers,
but ran out of time to
get past Albon in the
closing stages.The 0.841s gap
to Verstappen
in qualifying
perhaps made
things look worse than
they were, but he
wasn’t at the same
level as his team-mate
in China. Even so, he
did make sure of sixth
in qualifying and the
race, and the bonus
point for fastest lap
late on, even if he’s still
not on top of the car.Norris couldn’t
match Sainz,
losing time in the
second and third
sectors. Qualifying was
difficult for McLaren,
but it would have been
interesting to see what
might have happened
in a clean race. In the
event, Kvyat’s mistake
led to Norris sustaining
damage, but he
continued almost to
the end of the race.ONE DRIVER GETS A PERFECT
SCORE, BUT IT’S NOT LEWIS
Many drivers starred across the weekend, but only one put together
a performance worthy of a 10/10 in our traditional driver ratings
EDD STRAW