F1 Chinese Grand Prix: Max Verstappen Clinches Thrilling Sprint Victory Over Hamilton
At the start, Hamilton's superior launch from the front row left polesitter Norris trailing, as his outside line manoeuvre backfired, relegating him to seventh after a wheel-to-wheel tussle with Leclerc.
By Divyam Dubey
In the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race, Max Verstappen showcased his champion calibre by overtaking Lewis Hamilton on lap nine and clinching victory. At first, Verstappen seemed to have trouble with his hybrid settings, which slowed down the charging of his battery. However, a few changes to his driving wheel quickly fixed the problem. One of Verstappen's smart moves was a smooth DRS pass on Fernando Alonso, which moved him closer to the front. Given Hamilton's mistake in Turn 14, Verstappen pounced on the chance and charged to the finish line to claim the win.
Lando Norris, who started from pole position, showed great resilience, even though he got off to a slower start than Hamilton. As they got closer to the first corner, Norris tried an outside move to directly challenge Hamilton's position. But Hamilton skillfully held his line, keeping control of the track and stopping Norris's progress, which dropped him to seventh place.
F1 Chinese Grand Prix: Sprint Race Result
Verstappen, who won the sprint race, started from fourth place on the grid and carefully followed Mercedes's Hamilton, who had passed Lando Norris (who made a mistake at Turn 2). Hamilton lost the lead when he made a mistake at the turn on lap 7. In the next lap, Verstappen had taken over and was well ahead, with a 13-second gap between them.
As things got worse between Alonso and Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez took advantage and passed both of them. After crashing into Sainz, Alonso got a flat tyre, which sent him to the pit lane and ended his sprint race plans. In his rush to get back on track, Sainz accidentally pushed his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc off, losing his chance to get back into fourth place.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 19 Laps |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 13.043s |
| 3 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 15.258s |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 17.486s |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 20.696s |
| 6 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 22.088s |
| 7 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 24.713s |
| 8 | George Russell | Mercedes | 25.696s |
| 9 | Zhou Guanyu | Sauber | 31.951s |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 37.398s |
| 11 | Daniel Ricciardo | VCARB | 37.840s |
| 12 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | 38.295s |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 39.841s |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 40.299s |
| 15 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 40.838s |
| 16 | Yuki Tsunoda | VCARB | 41.870s |
| 17 | Alex Albon | Williams | 42.998s |
| 18 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 46.352s |
| 19 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 49.630s |
| 20 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | DNF |
Even as the laps were running out, Verstappen stayed ahead and easily won the Sprint race, with Hamilton and Perez close behind. Sainz was able to hold off Norris, which put Leclerc in fourth place. Norris humbly apologised to McLaren over the team radio, admitting that he made a mistake early on while he was racing with Hamilton. Oscar Piastri and George Russell got the last two points needed to finish in the top eight.
