When the race restarted he had 21 laps to make up three positions, but things went awry just four laps in when he attempted to pass Hamilton around the outside of Turn 7 and ran wide. Much like the first stop, the two Red Bulls were double stacked and Verstappen emerged from the pits having lost just one place to Hamilton. At that point Red Bull was still considering a two-stop to shake things up, and when the Safety Car was deployed the pit wall's mind was made up.
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Up to that point he had looked like the faster of the two Red Bull drivers all weekend, qualifying 0.121s ahead of his teammate and making better use of his ultra-soft tyres on the opening lap to pass Raikkonen and Hamilton and move up to third.Īs the advantage of his softer rubber succumbed to degradation, he slipped away from the lead two cars but still had the pace to keep Raikkonen at bay until his pit stop and stay ahead of Hamilton at the start of the second stint. The combination of the Red Bull and fresh soft tyres was the fastest way to the flag when racing got back underway on lap 35, but Verstappen threw it all away with two rash and unnecessary moves late in the race. I gave a little bit of room just in case he had a tiny lock-up, but then obviously he had a big lock-up, and that's when we crashed." Max VerstappenĪfter the Safety Car restart, Verstappen had the best chance of winning the race. "He wasn't there, so then you stay in front. "I think he had a bad exit off the corner heading on to the big straight, otherwise I was ready to just let him go," Vettel explained. The collision was entirely the Dutchman's fault and Vettel was ready to concede the place as soon as the Red Bull got a clean shot at an overtake. The race was then all about damage limitation, but Verstappen had other ideas. When the Safety Car came out, Vettel was past the pit lane exit meaning there was no opportunity to adopt a Red Bull-style strategy to the flag. Once in clear air, Bottas started to pull a gap on Vettel, and had the race run its normal course there was no reason to believe the Ferrari would have had an opportunity to get back ahead. With the help of teammate Kimi Raikkonen slowing Bottas after their stops, Vettel closed in on the two Finns but it wasn't enough for him to attempt to retake the lead. That was where Vettel lost the lead the race. Sure Mercedes had a quicker tyre change than Ferrari but between Bottas exiting the pits and Vettel entering them a lap later, Bottas took 3.058s out of Vettel's lead. In the opening stint he appeared to have the race under control with a three second buffer to Valtteri Bottas in second - enough to keep the Mercedes out of DRS range and, he believed, enough to prevent a successful undercut.Įven when Bottas was given the message to push on his in lap, Vettel was matching the Mercedes' sectors, but Ferrari had underestimated the pace of the Finn on a fresh set of medium tyres. His biggest setback was a collision with Max Verstappen on lap 43, but things had started to go wrong before that. He had the fastest car around the Shanghai International Circuit, he started from pole position and he barely put a wheel off line, yet Vettel crossed the line as the Chinese Grand Prix's biggest loser. The fortunes of each of the six contenders are charted below in an explanation of how the Chinese Grand Prix was won and lost. If things had gone differently any one of the losing five could have beaten Daniel Ricciardo to the win, but ultimately the Australian took a deserved victory.
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You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browserĬhinese Grand Prix: How five men lost and one man won in Shanghaiįormula One finally delivered on its promise of a three-team battle for victory at the Chinese Grand Prix with six of the sport's best drivers in with a realistic chance of winning the race.