Formula 1 returned to Shanghai, China for the first time since 2019, before the global Covid pandemic. This was the first Sprint Race format weekend of the season, modified slightly from last year. The new rules require that there would be only one free practice session (FP1) on Friday, followed by Sprint Qualifying (SQ1-3). The Sprint race would take place first on Saturday, followed by main race Qualifying later in the day. The main race on Sunday would stay as has been. At Aston Martin there was cautious belief that the upgrades introduced at the previous race in Japan had improved the performance of the AMR24 & having had two weeks to study the data & tweaked the cars appropriately, further improved performance could be extracted.
It began with mixed fortunes. In the first and only practice session, Lance Stroll raised quite a few eyebrows by setting the fastest overall time on the softest compound tyres. Not only that, he also recorded the highest top speed out of all the drivers in his AMR24 - 346.9 km/hour along the circuit’s 1.17km back straight. Fernando Alonso, on the hardest compound tyres, ended up only 19th, after taking a trip up the escape road at the entry to the pits on his fast lap runs, having been 2nd earlier in the session. This was after the session was red-flagged due to the grass around the circuit catching fire from the sparks from the cars!
With barely time to pause, Sprint Qualifying was underway and the drivers were reporting rain spitting on the track. Notwithstanding that, the two AMs both got into SQ2 safely - Alonso 7th & Stroll 9th. In SQ2, in their first runs, Alonso managed to get up to 7th, but Stroll was only 14th & then the rain came. A WET track was declared
and as nobody could improve their times due to the rain, Stroll ended up eliminated from the rest of Sprint Qualifying. As the cars came out for the top 10 shoot-out it was raining hard and Leclerc skidded off the track and hit a barrier & Alonso was investigated for a pit lane infringement when he skidded at the exit. With a couple of minutes to go, Alonso was on provisional pole but then in the final minute Hamilton beat his time, as did Norris, who initially had his pole lap time deleted then it was reinstated. That wrapped up Friday.
On the Saturday, the Sprint race was all set for an exciting showdown, with two British drivers on the front row, Alonso 3rd & Verstappen only 4th. However, with the track still slippery, Norris led off the start but slid off at the first corner, so it was Hamilton and Alonso 1st & 2nd. Verstappen though, gradually caught and passed Alonso on lap 8 and then Hamilton on lap 10. By lap 14, Sainz was within a second of Alonso, with Perez behind Sainz. On lap 16, Sainz managed to get alongside and was duelling with Alonso, managing to just scrape past. At the next corner, Alonso regained the position, but as he did so, their tyres touched, affecting both car’s momentum. Perez avoided & passed both drivers, Sainz recovered instantly, but it was clear that Alonso had got a puncture and tumbled down the order. He came into the pits for new tyres, went out but then got a call to come back into the pits & retire the car. Stroll had an uneventful race, finishing where he started, in 14th. After the race, the Stewards deemed that Alonso was at fault for the coming together with Sainz & handed him a 10-second time penalty as well as endorsing his super licence with 3 points! Hopefully his insurance company doesn’t get to learn about it!
By the afternoon, with his car all corrected, Alonso was raring to go again for Qualifying. Again, both AMs made it safely into Q2, but in that session Sainz had a big spin and crashed, requiring the session to be stopped with just over 6 minutes to go. When it restarted Alonso put in a decent lap to progress into Q3 (7th), but Stroll was only 11th, beaten into the top 10 by 0.069 of a second by Bottas and also by Hulkenberg. In Q3, at the end of the first runs it was Verstappen 1st & Alonso 2nd. However, in the end, Perez in the other Red Bull managed to make it a 1-2 for his team, with Alonso best of the rest, in 3rd again.
At the start of the race there was much hope that dragon Alonso would burn up his rivals. Starting on the 2nd row, behind Verstappen on pole, Alonso bravely & brilliantly tracked the polesitter round the first turn & on the outside of Perez, setting himself up to be better positioned for the next turns & settled into 2nd. Stroll, who had started on the soft tyres, moved up a place to 10th on the opening lap. However, by lap 3, when DRS was enabled, Alonso was only half second ahead of Perez and within the grasp of the faster Red Bull. On lap 5 Perez made his overtake on Alonso, without much of a fight as he didn't want to take too much out of his tyres
at this early stage of the race, with a full fuel load still. Stroll, meanwhile, continued to progress & passed Hulkenberg for 9th on lap 3, but not without incident. Replays showed wheel-to-wheel contact between Hulkenberg and Stroll during their exchange of positions, with Hulkenberg claiming he was forced off the track and the stewards deciding to examine the incident. Back at the front, Norris had gained to within a second of Alonso on lap 6 & passed him on lap 8. 2 laps later the other McLaren, of Oscar Piastri, was within DRS range (1 second) of Alonso. On lap 10, with many cars starting to come in for their 1st pits stops, the Team called Stroll in for new medium compound tyres & he came out 13th, narrowly avoiding a collision with other cars coming in to stop after he was released. 2 laps later, Alonso got the same “Box, box, box” call & he came into the pits for a fresh set of hard tyres, hoping to take him much further into the race. He came out 10th and with both AMs having the benefit of fresher tyres & the cars in front still having to come into the pits for their 1st stops, meaning by lap 18 Alonso was 5th and Stroll was 7th – both in healthy point scoring positions. On lap 19 though, Piastri, on fresher tyres was able to pass Stroll & on lap Sainz attempted to pass Stroll but locked up, so Stroll was able to get the place back. Later on that lap the Ferrari engine in Bottas’ Kick Sauber gave up and the Virtual Safety Car was deployed. Again many cars decided to come in for new tyres, taking advantage of the minimum time loss, including Stroll. However, as Bottas’ car was stuck in gear & not able to be moved the full safety car was deployed & Alonso came in again, this time for a new set of soft tyres, which was not expected. All the cars were bunching up behind Mercedes Safety Car & by the time that the race restarted, on lap 27, Alonso was 6th & Stroll 9th. But then carelessness struck. With the cars bunched up & raring to go, yet the pace being controlled by Verstappen at the front, Alonso locked up, concertinaing all the cars behind him. As a result, Riccardo had to brake hard and Stroll crashed into him. Further down the grid, Magnussen had hit Tsunoda and the Safety Car was deployed again. Stroll had to pit for a new nose cone, which seemingly took ages & he came out last. The race got underway again on lap 32 race underway again, but things were going to go from bad to worse for Stroll a lap later when he was judged to have been responsible for the crash & was handed a 10 second stop-go penalty, which he had to serve within 3 laps of the judgement. Before he did that he had a great fight for position with Magnussen, managing to make the pass but only having to come in and serve the penalty & get new tyres. Alonso meanwhile was still in 5th place, with Sainz starting to draw closer to him. With 15 laps to go, on lap 44 it was clear that Alonso’s soft tyres were not going to last the rest of the race so he came in for new medium tyres & came out 12th. 5 laps later he was 10th and clocking up the fastest laps of the race. He then overtook Hulkenberg for 9th on lap 48 and then, as he was closing up on Hamilton, had a real hand in mouth moment when he went so wide in final corner that he had his right rear wheel in the gravel, causing the car to slide & twitch, but he kept it enough to pass Hamilton later on in the lap, for 8th. Alonso’s final overtake was on Piastri, for 7th. Russell was 10 seconds further ahead with 5 laps to go, but with Alonso only making up a second on a lap, he was too far ahead to be caught & passed – clearly the strategy decision, to pit Alonso for soft tyres, hadn't worked out. Alonso finished 7th then & got a point for the fastest lap. Stroll was classified 15th, after Magnussen’s & Sargeant’s 10-second penalties had been applied.
After the race, Fernando said “We made a good start and moved up to second. The Safety Cars changed the strategy and we didn't have any more hard tyres available, so that's why we made a switch to the soft compound. Overall, it was a good race, but we have some work to do to improve our Sunday pace and match what we can do in Qualifying.”
Despite the final results, there were plenty of positives – two 3rd places in qualifying, fastest speed on the straight & passing a Red Bull to get into 2nd place off the start. More to come in 2 weeks’ time, in Miami, Florida, which will be another Sprint Race format weekend.
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