Linus O'Howell
- Apr 21
- 3 min read

2024 Chinese Grand Prix Race Review

Verstappen Wins Easily on Formula 1’s Return to China

Even with a couple of Safety Car’s, Max Verstappen was able to take a relatively straight-forward and dominant win to extend his lead in the Drivers’ Championship. Lando Norris came home P2 for McLaren after a fantastic drive whilst Sergio Perez rounded out the Podium in the second Red Bull.

The Biggest Talking Points

Max Verstappen was able to get off the line really well before Fernando Alonso went right round the outside of Sergio Perez in the first couple of corners. Max then started to already build a big gap between him and the cars behind as both Sergio Perez and Lando Norris dispatched Alonso’s Aston Martin. We got quite a few early pit stops, but the likes of Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc turned their attentions to going long to make a 1-stop strategy work. Things then got a little bit interesting as Valtteri Bottas had a really unfortunate engine failure which sucked for him as Valtteri was driving a pretty good Race up until that point. This brought out a VSC and then a full-on Safety Car a few laps later which allowed Lando and Charles to make their free pit stops and jump ahead of Perez (who also came into the pits). The dramatic part of the Race then occurred at Turn 14 on the restart as Lance Stroll rammed into the back of Daniel Ricciardo as a result of the field bunching up too much. This ultimately ruined both guys’ afternoons, and this was a particular shame for Danny Ric as he was having his best Race of the Season.

On the following lap, things got even worse for Visa Cash App RB as Yuki Tsunoda was completely wiped out of the Grand Prix by Kevin Magnussen. This was poor driving from K-Mag. After the second Safety Car period had ended, the focus shifted to Checo Perez who was able to clear Leclerc for third with a nice move into Turn 6, but he didn’t put any sort of impression on Norris for P2. Elsewhere, Lewis Hamilton had made his way into the points, but I wouldn’t say it was the most impressive of drives, especially given Lewis couldn’t put any real pressure on Oscar Piastri’s wounded McLaren, whilst Fernando Alonso showed some great pace towards the end (after making an extra stop) to climb up into 7th place (I don’t think Alonso could’ve finished any higher so the extra pit stop made sense).

The Standout Drives in the Race

I’ve given out two 10’s for today’s Chinese Grand Prix and the first one is obviously for Max Verstappen. What else can I say about Max, he’s unbelievably quick, and unless the others team can find something, Verstappen will keep winning comfortably. The other driver I’ve given out maximum points to is Lando Norris as I felt Lando drove a superb Race today and he very much deserved another P2 finish! I also felt that Charles Leclerc had a good afternoon whilst Nico Hulkenberg can be really pleased with another point for Haas.

Drivers who had a Shocker

In total, I’ve given out two 1’s for today’s Race and the first one is for Kevin Magnussen. For me, Kevin Magnussen’s incident with Yuki Tsunoda was way worse than the incident between Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo, mainly because Magnussen’s driving was very poor. K-Mag needs to do better! The other driver I’ve given the lowest possible grade to is Logan Sargeant who once again had no pace whatsoever and finished last on the road! I also thought that Lance Stroll had a really disappointing day, but I do think he was slightly unlucky with the whole Ricciardo-hairpin incident.