Ferrari rediscovers the hard bread of Formula 1. As hard as the tires mounted in the second part of the race, when the “plan D” chosen by Charles Leclerc, a one-stop strategy, was in fact imposed on practically everyone by safety. car, which went out twice in a few laps due to the retirement of Valtteri Bottas and then due to the collision of the unfortunate Lance Stroll with poor Daniel Ricciardo on the first restart. On lap 32, Leclerc found himself catapulted onto the podium, ahead of Sergio Perez, with the theoretical possibility of also attacking the second position of a great Lando Norris. But on those tyres, the SF-24 did not show as good a pace as that guaranteed by the medium tyres, so the Monegasque could do nothing but settle for fourth place, after being overtaken by the Mexican.
In front of everyone, from the first corner, as usual Max Verstappen ran his race apart, in splendid solitude. Five poles, four victories, one Sprint: without the technical problem in Australia (brakes on fire), he would have completed a Slam in these first two months of the World Championship. With this first success in China, they have 58 career successes, even 21 in the last 23 GPs: the two crumbs that fell from the tyrant's plate, Singapore 2023 and Melbourne 2024, were collected by Carlos Sainz.
The Spaniard from Ferrari also had a difficult race, finishing in fifth place. His teammate immediately returned the rudeness he received during yesterday's mini-race, pushing him to the outside at the first corner: the consequence was the double overtaking of both Red cars by George Russell and Nico Hulkenberg. It took Leclerc 9 laps to regain his position on the English Mercedes, then after the first pit stops (everyone except Charles and Norris had stopped) the safety car roulette shuffled the cards. Not enough to worry Verstappen, nor allow Ferrari to get on the podium: in the first four races they had always managed it, Shanghai – also considering the disappointing double qualification – represents a step backwards.
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