In the world of motorsport, it’s important to expect the unexpected. That’s exactly what happened at the Chinese Grand Prix, as a race that was originally projected to be a battle between Ferrari and Mercedes took a lot of dramatic twists and turns.
Angled into the defensive position at the starting grid, Sebastian Vettel was ready to block against any Mercedes cars that may attempt to overtake him off of the line. At the start, Vettel dove to the inside to defend against his own teammate going into turn one. This slowed Kimi Räikkönen slightly, leaving easy prey for Valtteri Bottas. Max Verstappen got by both Lewis Hamilton and Räikkönen. Hamilton began falling back slightly, but had a look up the inside of Räikkönen, although the move was unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, the Renault teammates of Carlos Sainz and Nico Hülkenberg had a good scrap heading down the back straight, nearly colliding together. However, they sorted themselves out quickly to ensure that they didn’t slow each other up and fall into the clutches of the Haas drivers. The driver with the most successful first lap was Lance Stroll, who went from P18 to P12.
After just a handful of laps, Vettel had pulled out a comfortable 2.5 second lead, although Bottas showed his intent to remain within the undercut range. Just ten laps into the race, the pit window for the cars that started on the ultrasoft tyres opened, many of which changed to the medium tyre. On lap 17, Red Bull very nearly double stacked their cars in the pit box, ditching the ultrasofts for the medium tyre in the one stop strategy.
The following lap, Hamilton reacted to the potential undercut threat by the Red Bull drivers, while also attempting his own undercut on the Ferrari drivers ahead. Hamilton escaped the pit lane in front of Daniel Ricciardo, aided partly by Kevin Magnussen, who slowed up the Red Bull slightly. Bottas was the next car to pit, attempting the undercut on Ferrari. Vettel reacted a lap later, but was unsuccessful in covering off the undercut, losing the lead of the race to Bottas.
Unfortunately, Räikkönen got the short end of the stick in terms of Ferrari pit strategy, being held out on old tyres and becoming a pawn in Vettel’s quest to regain the lead. Bottas and Vettel caught up to the leading Ferrari quickly. Slowed by Räikkönen ahead, Bottas quickly fell into reach of Vettel. On lap 27, Bottas went side-by-side with Räikkönen in turn one. Despite a battle from the Räikkönen, Bottas was able to get by. Räikkönen then let his teammate pass and pulled into the pit lane, coming out behind Ricciardo and essentially being taken out of contention. However, Räikkönen’s sacrifice brought Vettel right to the rear wing of Bottas, setting up a chase for the victory.
Looking further back in the field, the two Toro Rosso drivers collided in the hairpin. Pierre Gasly waited too long to pit, running up the inside of his teammate. Gasly suffered some front wing damage and Brendon Hartley spun. While both drivers were able to recover from the incident, it prompted a safety car for the debris. This was a gift for Red Bull, who dove into the pits to switch to the soft compound tyres on both cars. Neither of the leading pair were able to take advantage of the safety car because it was called just after the duo had passed the pit entrance.
On the restart, Bottas was able to get a good start and maintain his leading position. There was a lot of action in the middle of the pack with a side-by-side battle between Fernando Alonso and Romain Grosjean, as well as a near collision between the Force India teammates.
With the fresh rubber, Ricciardo was able to get past Räikkönen down the fast straight and into the hairpin. Although he was certainly at risk, Hamilton had not yet been overtaken by the Red Bull of Verstappen. While attempting an overtake around the outside of Hamilton, Verstappen ran wide, allowing Ricciardo to get by his teammate. This allowed Ricciardo to dive up the inside of Hamilton into the hairpin, pulling off a spectacular overtake. A discouraged Hamilton also lost his position to Verstappen a few laps later.
Ricciardo threw a wrench into Vettel’s chase for the leading Mercedes. Ricciardo got by the Ferrari easily down the fast straight, securing the overtake in the hairpin. But it was the other Red Bull that would cause a bigger issue for Vettel. Verstappen attempted a late dive into the hairpin on inside of Vettel, but he failed to get the car turned in and collided with Vettel. This took Vettel and Verstappen out of contention and prompted some attention from the stewards, who opted to award Verstappen a 10 second time penalty.
Meanwhile, Ricciardo found some wings, setting blistering lap times and getting right on the rear wing of Bottas. Heading into turn six on lap 45, Ricciardo dove to the inside of Bottas. Bottas attempted to cover him off, leaving just barely enough room for the Red Bull to sneak past. The duo almost made contact, but the move was clean.
Verstappen was able to also get past Hamilton, who just didn’t have the pace because of his degrading tyres. This gave Verstappen clear air to create a gap and try to minimize the damage caused by his penalty. With the laps running out, he caught up to the rear of Räikkönen, who had caught up to the rear of Bottas, making a three way battle for the second step of the podium. None of the drivers were able to make a move.
But the real star of the race was Daniel Ricciardo, who put in a fantastic show to steal the victory from the Mercedes team and earned himself 25 points in the World Drivers’ Championship title.
Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
