F1 Chinese GP: Verstappen passes Hamilton to win first sprint of 2024

The championship leader appeared out of sorts in the opening flurry of laps as he struggled to charge his battery with the selected hybrid settings, but a series of changes on his steering wheel appeared to rectify the issue.

With greater forward momentum, Verstappen pulled himself out of third with a simple DRS overtake on the second-placed Fernando Alonso, and then pounced on a Turn 14 lock-up from Hamilton to close in for victory.

Polesitter Lando Norris had suffered a poorer start in comparison to Hamilton and, once the first corner began to approach, the Mercedes driver was level alongside the McLaren.

Norris attempted to hang his car around the outside as the circuit coiled into the long right-hander at the start of the lap, but Hamilton kept his car in the middle of the road at the switching point to the left-handed Turn 3. This left Norris out of road, where he ultimately dropped to seventh.

After emerging with the lead, Hamilton started to gap Alonso and built a healthy 1.4-second buffer by the time the Spaniard came under attack from a Verstappen with renewed vigour.

The seas appeared to part for Verstappen as the Aston Martin driver did not fight the Red Bull driver with DRS, and a lap later Hamilton snatched at his left-front tyre at Turn 14 to lose time.

This gave Verstappen a slam-dunk opportunity to pass for the lead on the ninth lap, which he duly took and waltzed off into the distance by gapping Hamilton at the rate of more than a second per lap. At the flag, Verstappen claimed victory by 13 seconds.

Hamilton remained unchallenged for second, while Sergio Perez snatched third after winning out in a thrilling scrap between himself, Alonso, and the two Ferraris.

Alonso had started to drop back after initially clinging on to Hamilton, slowly looming larger in Carlos Sainz's vision as the Ferrari driver had the edge on pace over the second half. The pressure started to ratchet up between the two Spanish drivers and Sainz started to throw a few barbs Alonso's way, but the Aston Martin remained in front.

Perez and Charles Leclerc also joined the fray and, when Alonso and Sainz went wheel to wheel through Turns 7 and 8 with contact, Perez took full advantage of the situation and stole past at the following corner.

Third place was sealed when the Ferraris fought with each other rather than attempt to re-pass Perez, with Leclerc being shown the door on more than one occasion before eventually clearing Sainz for fourth. In the meantime, Alonso had dropped out of the race with a puncture after his contact with Sainz.

Norris, after his first-lap wide moment, was in touching distance with the pack in contention for third but could not work his way into the thick of that battle, but at least was well ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri in seventh place. George Russell completed the top eight with a gamble on soft tyres, finishing 6.2s clear of home hero Zhou Guanyu to collect the final point on offer.

F1 Chinese GP - Sprint results:

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Chassis	Engine
1	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		19	-				8		Red Bull	Red Bull
2	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44		19	+13.043 13.043	13.043			7		Mercedes	Mercedes
3	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11		19	+15.258 15.258	2.215			6		Red Bull	Red Bull
4	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		19	+17.486 17.486	2.228			5		Ferrari	Ferrari
5	C. Sainz Ferrari	55		19	+20.696 20.696	3.210			4		Ferrari	Ferrari
6	L. Norris McLaren	4		19	+22.088 22.088	1.392			3		McLaren	Mercedes
7	O. Piastri McLaren	81		19	+24.713 24.713	2.625			2		McLaren	Mercedes
8	G. Russell Mercedes	63		19	+25.696 25.696	0.983			1		Mercedes	Mercedes
9	Z. Guanyu Sauber	24		19	+31.951 31.951	6.255					Sauber	Ferrari
10	K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team	20		19	+37.398 37.398	5.447					Haas	Ferrari
11	D. Ricciardo RB	3		19	+37.840 37.840	0.442					RB	Red Bull
12	V. Bottas Sauber	77		19	+38.295 38.295	0.455					Sauber	Ferrari
13	E. Ocon Alpine	31		19	+39.841 39.841	1.546					Alpine	Renault
14	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		19	+40.299 40.299	0.458					Aston Martin	Mercedes
15	P. Gasly Alpine	10		19	+40.838 40.838	0.539					Alpine	Renault
16	Y. Tsunoda RB	22		19	+41.870 41.870	1.032					RB	Red Bull
17	A. Albon Williams	23		19	+42.998 42.998	1.128					Williams	Mercedes
18	L. Sargeant Williams	2		19	+46.352 46.352	3.354					Williams	Mercedes
19	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27		19	+49.630 49.630	3.278					Haas	Ferrari
dnf	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		17				2		Collision	Aston Martin	Mercedes
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