Max Verstappen wins his first Chinese Grand Prix, which is probably a surprise that he hasn’t won this race before, except this was the first one since 2019. Talking of partying like it is 2019 here is our 2024 Chinese F1 Grand Prix Result Summary which covers both races and anything else of interest.
This 2024 Chinese Grand Prix Result, Lap by Lap, Review & Summary gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
READ MORE:
2024 Chinese GP Preview
2024 Japanese Summary and Review
2024 Japanese Grand Prix Driver Ratings
Our 2024 F1 Calendar & Results
Our 2023 Full Season Reviews
2024 Chinese F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – Max Verstappen takes pole, again, but it was a late rush where Alonso, Norris all had chances at first on the grid. Carlos Sainz spun at the last corner bringing out a red flag but the car was not damaged too badly and he continued after the break. In other interesting qualifying news Lewis Hamilton lines up 18th on the grid after a shocker in Q1. Daniel Ricciardo outqualified Yuki Tsunoda for the first time in the season but will need a decent race result to keep the wolves at bay.
This was all after a sprint race dominated by Max Verstappen eventually. But this was after Lewis Hamilton led for quite a while and Lando Norris threw away his Sprint Race pole at the first corner. The race will be remembered for a huge battle for third involving Fernando Alonso, the two Ferraris and Sergio Perez. A taste of what F1 could be without Max winning everything.
As for race day it is overcast with a chance of some rain. They say 10% but it looks more than that. Will it be enough to stop Max Verstappen? No, but it might slow Sergio Perez enough to have a battle for second. We will see.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER PER ALO NOR PIA LEC SAI RUS HUL BOT
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen get away well enough and chops off Sergio Perez enough. Enough for Fernando Alonso to sneak up the inside of Perez into turn two in a typical bold Alonso move (on Perez). Further behind the Ferraris bottle it and both lose places to George Russel and Nico Hulkenberg. Although Leclerc steals back his place into the hairpin. Same with Sainz a little later. Lance Stroll made up a few places nicely and as ever Daniel Ricciardo fluffs the start and ends up just one place ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in 15th. That won’t help keep his seat. In back of the grid news Lewis Hamilton is only 19th after the first lap. Ouch for the Mercedes.
ORDER – VER ALO PER NOR PIA RUS LEC SAI HUL STR
Lap 4 – The race itself might regret Alonso getting ahead of Perez, as he seems to be bunching up the top eight behind him. Meanwhile Max Verstappen is cruising out in front by over three seconds and going about a second a lap at this stage. Not that Perez would have done much more about Verstappen. And like the sprint race, who cares about Max Verstappen winning when you get great battle with Fernando Alonso involved.
Lap 5 – Sergio Perez slips past Fernando Alonso for second. Too easy. Damn you Red Bull for building rocket ships. Talking of overtaking a nice move from Lewis Hamilton on Kevin Magnussen for 17th.
Lap 6 – Interesting caption on the coverage as the two Red Bulls are shown a long way in front on the long back straight. It pointed out who Verstappen and Perez are. One would have thought with any knowledge of F1 for the past three season that such labelling wasn’t necessary. A random Kick Sauber mention as we’ll probably forget they’re in the race after this. Valtteri Bottas is 10th and local hero Guanyu Zhou is second last aka 19th.
Lap 7 – Fernando Alonso is overtaken by Lando Norris for third. Maybe Lando and his McLaren can give us a race considering he was plenty fast in sprint qualifying. In less exciting overtaking news an Alpine was trying to get past a Williams for something.
Lap 9 – With DRS assistance Charles Leclerc powers past George Russell into turn one in a beautiful move. Soft tyre driving Yuki Tsunoda and Guanyu Zho change tyres. Lewis Hamilton does a lap later too. Bit of a write off this weekend now. Although, he has second place in the sprint race as something to take home. He advised on radio that the soft tyre was “The Worst Tyre Man”. Which is either a fair description of the compound or a very unfair description of a human impersonating a tyre man.
ORDER – VER (+7 seconds) PER NOR ALO PIA LEC RUS SAI STR BOT
Lap 12 – In other someone trying to make a race of this news, Charles Leclerc is on a bit of a charge, charging down the inside of Oscar Piastri for 5ht at the hairpin on the back straight.
Lap 13 – In pitstop news Pierre Gasly and Alpine have a shocker with almost being sent out with a loose wheel. Also a bit loose is Yuki Tsunoda and a Kick Sauber almost colliding in pit lane. Alonso and Russell have pit too dropping to 9th and 10th. All the stops leave Daniel Ricciardo in rare 7th territory.
Lap 14 – Max Verstappen pits. As does Sergio Perez. Ahh, the luxury of having one driver much better than the other. They both take hard tyres. This leaves the McLarens out there with the Ferraris. Verstappen and Perez rejoin 4th and 6th for now.
Lap 16 – Max Verstappen sets fastest lap and overtakes the yet-to-pit Charles Leclerc for second. Just in case you were wondering who was going to win this race. Sergio Perez serves up more of the same v Leclerc a few laps later to double down on the Red Bull dominance.
Lap 20 – Verstappen breezes past Lando Norris and re-takes the lead. There may be more to this race with one stops v two stops. But realistically Red Bull and Verstappen are playing with the field. And to a lesser degree, Sergio Perez. In other swapping Red Bull news, Daniel Ricciardo is “faster than his team mate” and goes past for 14th. One place behind Lewis Hamilton. Between 13th, 14th, Alonso in 5th and Nico Rosberg in the commentary box, those drivers have won the last nine Chinese Grands Prix.
Lap 21 – Valtteri Bottas’ car is smoking and stopped on the edge of the circuit. With a Yellow flag turn into a Safety Car for our interest? Stand by…..Yes. Sort of. At least Bottas leads to something interesting happening in a race. No offence to him.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lap 22 – Much pit lane action. Including Lando Norris for his first of the race. Norris keeps a podium spot by exiting in third behind the Red Bulls.
ORDER – VER (+22 seconds) PER NOR ALO LEC RUS PIA SAI HUL OCO
FULL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
The full safety car is deployed when it becomes clear that the vacated Kick Sauber of Bottas won’t budge.
Lap 23 – Both Red Bulls pit now the full Safety Car is called. So too does Fernando Alonso. Red Bulls take hard tyres, Alonso soft. Verstappen keeps his lead but Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc who pit before the Safety Car splits the Red Bulls.
ORDER – VER NOR LEC PER PIA SAI ALO RUS RIC STR
Lap 25 – Oscar Piastri pits and ends up 8th in front of Daniel Ricciardo for a nice Aussie moment. Talking of the Aussies Ricciardo’s team mate pit for tyres and he didn’t. An interesting late race tussle for the final point coming and ending in tears? We’re calling it right here.
In tactics news, everyone is on hard tyres except for Fernando Alonso (Soft – will regret) and Daniel Ricciardo (Medium). Most on the hard are likely to need another stop. So softer tyres look like a disadvantage for now. Until the rain comes. We hope.
SAFETY CAR ENDS
Lap 26 – All is well on the restart, until halfway around the lap shows Yuki Tsunoda with a busted rear wheel. Followed by Kevin Magnussen with a busted front wheel. Then footage of Lance Stroll running up the behind of an RB, which turns out to be Daniel Ricciardo. A lot to dissect here. So Kevin Magnussen clips Tsunoda during the restart lap – Tsunoda out and Magnussen pits. The Lance Stroll-Daniel Ricciardo incident was before the Safety Car restart, with Stroll running up the back of Ricciardo at the hairpin. Stroll calling Ricciardo an idiot for braking. Well that does happen into a hairpin, and since you can’t overtake under the Safety Car, going slower under the safety car should be expected. Maybe for a normal F1 driver. Maybe his Dad can fix it. This leaves Ricciardo 9th and Stroll pits.
SAFETY CAR DELPOYED
SAFETY CAR LEAVES (After too long)
Lap 32 – Daniel Ricciardo is the big loser on the restart dropping from 9th to 13th. His car may not be perfect after being rammed by Stroll. His slide through the field means he will soon be in Stroll’s company at the tail of the field.
ORDER – VER NOR LEC PER ALO SAI RUS PIA HUL HAM
Lap 36 – At the front Max Verstappen is leading comfortably enough – 2.6 seconds in front of Lando Norris who is similarly distanced from Charles Leclerc who is under pressure from Perez and Alonso – whose soft tyre gamble probably isn’t working out.
Lap 39 – Sergio Perez takes the final podium spot off Charles Leclerc who is quickly onto the radio about tyre strategy. Bit late now for the Ferrari man. Talking of Ferrari Carlos Sainz is under pressure for 6th from George Russell.
Lap 44 – As ever Fernando Alonso takes it into his hands to entertain F1 fans by pitting for new Medium tyres with 12 laps to go. 12 laps? Bloody hell, this is going to be a long-ish time. Further to the front, the remaining battle of interest is whether Sergio Perez can catch Lando Norris for 2nd. That doesn’t happen as by Lap 52 Norris is 11 seconds ahead of the Red Bull.
ORDER – VER NOR PER LEC SAI RUS PIA HAM HUL OCO
Lap 48 – Fastest lap setting Fernando Alonso passes Nico Hulkenberg for 9th. Probably only Lewis Hamilton’s 8th or Oscar Piastri’s 7th left to steal. Hamilton is closing in on Piastri. He takes Hamilton within a lap. A lap later Alonso gets past Oscar Piastri. Lord knows where he could end up now. Six laps to go.
ORDER – VER NOR PER LEC SAI RUS ALO PIA HAM HUL
Lap 52 – Fernando Alonso is nine seconds behind George Russell in 6th. But catching at four seconds a lap according to TV. Sadly Alonso’s Lap 52 is only 1.3 seconds quicker than Russell. So maybe fast enough for 6th?
Lap 54 – Guanyu Zhou is given some fresh tyres to have a bit of late race run. He overtakes Kevin Magnussen for 14th.
FINAL LAP – the TV cameras pick up Max Verstappen for the standard last half a lap honour as he cruises to yet another win, but first in China. Something about a Rd Bull in a China Shop could be added here. Behind that lame pun is Lando Norris’ fine second place.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – VER NOR PER LEC SAI RUS ALO PIA HAM HUL
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Pole, win, Sprint Race win and an extended Championship lead. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Max Verstappen makes it look so easy. And it probably is for him. Didn’t get fastest lap. Can’t have everything. This time.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANDO NORRIS – A sprint race pole (forget about dropping it on first lap of that) and a very solid actual Grand Prix continues a good season. Second place and keeping Max Verstappen is a decent effort and a worthy reward.
SERGIO PEREZ – A solid race weekend of next best will keep the vultures away from his seat for a few more races yet.
FERNANDO ALONSO – Continues to out-perform the car. And defy his age. Thank god he has been re-signed for two more seasons. And pit late for new tyres.
NICO HULKENBERG – Points in his car is a good effort.
DANIEL RICCIARDO – Out-qualifies his team mate. Sort-of out races him despite another crap start. His team mate is punted off after the first safety car. This is after being better than Tsunoda in the sprint race. The fact he dropped a pile of spots after the second restart and retired after being slammed from behind by Stroll is a bit of a downer, but progress none-the-less. My, how long we have sunk for some good Ricciardo news.
THE GRAPE-EST – LEWIS HAMILTON
Knocked out in Q1 qualifying, made slow progress during the race. Probably not where he wanted to be. Ended up in the points after spending half a race complaining about how bad his car was. Our guess is he’d rather be in a Ferrari. A few points not enough to save him from the race weekend.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
YUKI TSUNODA – Outqualified by his team mate for the first time this season. He did get ahead of him in the race after Ricciardo ran a long first stint.
LANCE STROLL – Thrashed in qualifying but Alonso (who reports say was being talked about being pushed out by some Aston Martin sources). Then is OK in the race until he runs up the back of Daniel Ricciardo before the Safety Car leaves. Aston Martin truly wasting a second car.
VALTTERI BOTTAS – A retirement to cap off obscurity. Pity, we like his new Aussie influenced attitude.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
ON TRACK ACTION – 5 / 10
Enough Safety Car and differing pit stop strategy to break up the race nicely enough.
ANY SURPRISES? – 3 / 5
A few Safety cars for interest, breaking up the Red Bull dominance. A good mix of contenders behind the Red Bulls. But ultimately a Red Bull display.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 2 / 5
Red Bulls are faster than everyone. Sergio Perez being a good guide. The race is on for second this season.
ENDING 5 / 10
Thank god for Fernando. Alonso on fresh tyres offers something at the end. Like he usually does. Outside of that, some backmarker overtaking scraps.
OVERALL RATING 15 / 30
Fair to say it was a decent race. Did we miss the Chinese Grand Prix since 2019. Probably not. Will we remember this one. Probably not.
2024 F1 Season Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
Why not check the latest race ratings – 2024 Japanese Grand Prix Ratings
Or check out our 2023 Season Driver Rankings and Stats
