Formula 1 2018 Chinese Grand Prix

Speaking on the Dutch TV channel Ziggo’s Peptalk show, Verstappen Snr admitted that Max’s move that led to Vettel’s spin, and a 10s time penalty, was the kind of mistake he needs to avoid in future. He also revealed that he will meet with his son this week to discuss what happened.“The overtake on Vettel really wasn’t on,” said Jos. “That wasn’t possible. It was an error of ...

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Sergio Perez fell from eighth to 14th on lap one of last weekend's Chinese GP amid a brush with Fernando Alonso that also held up the second Force India of Esteban Ocon.That came a week after Perez was delayed by a first-lap collision with Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley in Bahrain.   ...

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The subject, which will be discussed in Tuesday's F1 Strategy Group meeting in Paris, came to the fore after there was a lack of overtaking in the Australian Grand Prix, and it was discussed by the FIA, F1's chief technical officer Pat Symonds and team technical bosses in Bahrain.There was no consensus in that meeting, and discussions will now move on to team boss level at the ...

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A bold gamble on strategy paid off big time for Red Bull in Shanghai, a quick decision to pit both of its drivers for fresh soft rubber during a safety car intervention mid-way through the Chinese GP netting an unlikely win for Daniel Ricciardo.It could have even been a one-two for the Red Bull outfit had Max Verstappen not lost time with an unsuccessful passing move on Hamilton ...

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Lance Stroll qualified his Williams FW41 down in 18th place and started the race on a set of soft Pirelli tires.He made a good start and ran in 12th place before he made his only pit stop of the race on Lap 23 for the medium tire.“It was a great start again and, like in Bahrain, I made up six positions at the start. It’s always good fun to come back around start finish straight and ...

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The Sauber driver outqualified his more experienced teammate Marcus Ericsson for the first time on Saturday at the Shanghai circuit, and ran ahead of him in the opening stint of the race.However, a spin at Turn 1 briefly left Leclerc in the gravel and caused floor damage that compromised the rest of his race and left him 19th, last of the finishers.Leclerc initially thought the floor ...

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Red Bull driver Ricciardo won the Shanghai race to give the Renault engine - also used by McLaren - its first victory of the season.Alonso, meanwhile, qualified 13th and finished the race in seventh place, 30 seconds behind Ricciardo.The McLaren driver conceded Sunday's result leaves McLaren with no place to hide.When asked if he was disappointed he didn't win the race, Alonso said ...

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Ricciardo stormed to an unlikely win in China, making the most of a set fresh of soft-compound rubber in the closing stages thanks to a strategic gamble from his Red Bull crew.It was a spectacular charge too, with impressive moves on Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, and Sebastian Vettel before an inch-perfect play for the lead down the inside of Bottas into Turn 6 with 12 laps to ...

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Lewis HamiltonRating: 7This was one of those occasional weekends when the usual Lewis Hamilton doesn't turn up. He was perfectly decent, but lacked his usual spark and admitted the car seemed to turn upside down for him between Friday and Saturday. Qualifying was better than the race - he lapped five hundredths off Bottas on Saturday - but he still came away with a solid result on ...

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Verstappen tapped Vettel into a spin at the Turn 14 hairpin, which earned Verstappen a 10-second time penalty and two penalty points added to his licence.It means Verstappen now has five penalty points, with drivers receiving an automatic one-race ban if they hit 12 points in a 12-month period.Whiting said: "There probably is a little bit of criticism but that's what the penalty ...

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Daniel Ricciardo has an uncanny knack for impeccable timing. His Chinese Grand Prix victory was a masterclass in judging the moment – make that moments – to perfection like no one else. Give him a sniff of victory and he nails it with a ruthless efficiency. This was pure killer instinct.The razor-sharp timing rubs off on those around him too. Whether it was nailing his overtaking ...

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Along with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, Hamilton sneaked past the cars of Vettel and Verstappen, who tangled with 14 laps left in the race, as Verstappen attempted to pass at Turn 14.Brit Hamilton went to the outside while Raikkonen took the inside."I was definitely worried of catching [crashing into] them, especially as they were trying to turn around, so I thought I might get caught ...

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RICCIARDO’S BEST WIN YET? Photo by: Andrew Hone / LAT ImagesDaniel Ricciardo produced a text book showing of ...

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PODIUM INTERVIEWS(Conducted by Martin Brundle)Daniel – what an absolute star. What a race! Your sixth victory, but is that the sweetest one?Daniel RICCIARDO: I don’t know what it is, I don’t seem to win boring races, they’re all pretty fun. That was unexpected. Put ourselves 24 hours ago and I thought we’d maybe be starting at the back of the grid. Firstly, thanks to the boys ...

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FIA race director Charlie Whiting called for the safety car after a collision between Toro Rosso drivers Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly left debris on the track, opting not to go for a VSC because it was necessary to create a gap in traffic to allow marshals onto the track.However, the yellow flag period was confirmed just after leader Valtteri Bottas and Vettel had passed the ...

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A bold pass on Valtteri Bottas for the lead capped a stunning charge from Ricciardo after Red Bull opted to pit him during a safety car for fresh tyres. It came a week after Ricciardo retired from the Bahrain GP on the second lap, and 24 hours after only just making it out in time for qualifying in China following a spectacular engine failure. “It was awesome,” he said. “We really ...

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McLaren driver Alonso was able to erase a six-second gap to Vettel in the closing stages of the race and pass the German down the inside of Turn 1 to take seventh position.Vettel had dropped down the order after his crash with Red Bull's Max Verstappen, the Ferrari showing visible damage on the right side of the floor area.Alonso conceded the pass was not a fair reflection of the ...

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Hamilton has already labelled his fourth place in Shanghai as a "disaster", admitting that his side of the Mercedes garage underperformed for much of the weekend.Expanding on Hamilton's lack of form, Mercedes team boss Wolff said he felt his star driver wasn't quite on song in China, something he says can happen even to the very best in the business."Like the car, he was maybe not in ...

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Vettel, winner of the first two grands prix of the 2018 F1 season, was tapped into a spin by Verstappen 13 laps from the end of the Shanghai race as the Red Bull caught his third-placed Ferrari having taken on fresh tyres during a safety car period.Verstappen accepted full responsibility for the incident and approached Vettel to discuss it immediately after the race finished."He came ...

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Gasly was coming up 18th-placed Hartley on fresher tyres at the midpoint of the race, and ended up pitching his teammate into a spin as he attempted to get past down the inside of the Turn 14 hairpin.The clash resulted in what ended up a race-changing safety car and was swiftly followed by a penalty for Gasly, who was eventually classified 18th to Hartley's 20th.Speaking to media ...

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Verstappen had benefitted from the safety car period triggered by a clash between the Toro Rosso drivers to switch to soft tyres and attack his medium-shod rivals in the latter part of the race.However, an overoptimistic move on Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel ended with the duo making contact and spinning.As a result, Verstappen was handed a 10-second penalty which relegated him to ...

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The world champion dropped several spots with a sluggish opening lap, before spending the first stint of the race battling to hold on to the back of Kimi Raikkonen in fifth position.He struggled to make much headway from there, ultimately being passed by both Red Bulls on fresher rubber in the late stages of the race, and only finishing fourth thanks to the clash between Max ...

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The Dutchman was pushing through the field and fighting Vettel for third place when he made a late move at the hairpin on lap 43 – clashing with his Ferrari rival and pitching both into a spin.The FIA stewards ruled that Verstappen was at fault for causing the collision and handed him a 10-second penalty, which dropped him from fourth to fifth in the end.Speaking after the race ...

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The Dutchman was pushing through the field and fighting Vettel for third place when he made a late move at the hairpin on lap 43 – clashing with his Ferrari rival and pitching both into a spin.The FIA stewards ruled that Verstappen was at fault for causing the collision and handed him a 10-second penalty, which dropped him from fourth to fifth in the end.Speaking after the race ...

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Bottas and Vettel were locked in their own battle for the win until Ricciardo and Verstappen pitted again for fresh soft tyres during a safety car period just after the halfway mark as their rivals stayed on mediums.Ricciardo then overtook his teammate, Lewis Hamilton and Vettel in quick succession before executing a stunning pass on Bottas into the tight Turn 6 right-hander for the ...

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First, it has split strategies throughout the grid because of the severity of the step.Drivers believe that those starting on ultrasofts have locked themselves into a two-stop strategy, so the Red Bulls, the Renaults, Romain Grosjean's Haas and Sergio Perez's Force India are all compromised strategically compared to rivals starting outside the top 10.Ferrari and Mercedes qualified on ...

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The team had hoped to turn its fortunes around in 2018 after a switch to Renault engines, having struggled with Honda power units for the last three years.However, the pace of this year's MCL33 has not allowed McLaren to fight near the front, its drivers qualifying in 13th and 14th positions ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix.Boullier said the 2018 car has been meeting the targets set ...

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Ferrari beat Mercedes in a straight fight in Bahrain last week, but Mercedes was expected to rediscover its pace advantage in China and Hamilton edged Kimi Raikkonen in Friday practice.However, Mercedes slipped back significantly in qualifying and was half a second adrift of championship leader Sebastian Vettel, who headed a Ferrari one-two as Hamilton qualified fourth behind teammate ...

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The 27-year-old was on his second run during the first stage of qualifying when Sauber teammate Charles Leclerc spun exiting the final corner.Ericsson came through the corner shortly after Leclerc spun, but after being told by the team it was only a single-waved yellow flag he only gave away half-a-second.This was not enough to satisfy the requirement of not attempting to set a ...

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A week after his early retirement from the Bahrain GP with an energy store problem, Ricciardo suffered a spectacular engine failure in final practice in China and only just made it out for the end of Q1 following an engine change.He went on to qualify a place behind teammate Max Verstappen in sixth.Asked by Motorsport.com if he was starting to give up hope of Renault reliability ...

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On the back of a star-making run to fourth place in Bahrain, Gasly qualified a lowly 17th for the Shanghai race.The Chinese circuit was not expected to suit the Honda-powered STR13 as well as Bahrain had, but Gasly's pace in particular suffered a noticeable decline between Friday and Saturday."We knew top 10 would be difficult, but [we expected to be] around P11, P12, and actually to ...

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Raikkonen was quicker than Vettel in Q2, on provisional pole after the first runs in Q3 and posted the fastest first and second sectors of the session on his final lap.The Finn failed to improve in the final sector and only marginally lowered his best time, while Vettel was able to overturn the deficit from the first two sectors and snatch pole by less than a tenth.Asked by ...

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The Sauber driver was on a flying lap in Q1 when he was shown warning flags for teammate Charles Leclerc, who had spun coming out of the final corner.Ericsson steered around the other Sauber and completed his lap, and was judged by the FIA not to have slowed sufficiently.After being called to see the stewards, it was deemed that he had broken the rules and was handed a five-place ...

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Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen comfortably locked out the top two positions on the grid with strong form throughout the session in Shanghai – with Mercedes duo Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton nowhere near close enough to properly challenge.Speaking after the session, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff reckoned that his team’s struggles owed more to not getting its tyres into the right ...

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In this clip from Motorsport Show, Peter Windsor and Craig Scarborough explore what the term really means, and why teams cannot just push their engines to full power throughout a grand prix weekend."You've got to manage your performance versus reliability and fuel consumption," says Scarborough.  ...

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