General Practice Chinese doctors: Martin Brundle evaluates the victory of Oscar Piastra, Ferrari ‘Bol’ after disqualification for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc

Sprint weekends are always full for everyone, there is a real urgency of procedures from Friday morning to Sunday night. Shanghai did not differ, and if anything the relentless nature reinforces because the package was so close, and at the beginning of the season for many new driving and team combinations.

Little Margin McLaren was again a team that would win, but on a very smooth and loud new surface that would bring half a time three seconds faster than last year, delivering the optimal circle was not easy for any of the drivers.

Mandatory minimum tires pressures were high due to high aerodynamic loads in the first 270 degree turn that also includes two and three. And also 12 and 13 on a long back straight.

For the qualifying circle, drivers were supposed to hang out a little in the pit and a pit for a pit to release temperatures, and therefore pressures to go down, not at least because minimal pressures on Friday again raised one dog’s front and back. This voodoo and an imprecise procedure lead to high variability.

Hence, we had Ferrari Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull Max Verstappen, first and foremost for Sprint with 19 circles, and McLaren of Oscar Piastra and Mercedes from George Russella in the 56 rounds. The variability was the name of the game in Shanghai.

Vintage Hamilton in Sprint

Sprint was Vintage Hamilton who controlled the race from the position of Pole, governing the tire more than them better than the others, and pushing out his first victory for Ferrari. After a previous weekend in Melbourne, which he called “catastrophic”, this was the perfect antidote, and it is extremely the first time he or Ferrari won the sprint.

Piastra would break up to a fine second place, ending very fair and aligned Verstappen, because everyone struggled with poorly marked tires that were very radiating. This is a procedure in which the lateral grip is so high that it wrapped a surface compound and makes the gum sliding, which further exacerbates the problem.

The championship leader Lando Norris had one of his occasional unbridled mistakes and was in the initial round, and he would only save a point in eighth place. McLaren is obviously fast, but a little on the edge of the ride knife.

These days, teams are allowed to make changes before Saturday afternoon qualify for them to try to improve their cars for both speed and tire management. And many seemed quite successful about it.

A great unknown to the day of the race would be the performance of a hard tire of a hard complex. In the Sprint weekends, despite the fact that there was an additional qualifying session and a further mini race, each driver was awarded 12 and not 13 sets of dry tires for the weekend.

And only two of them are a claim that no one wants to try and spend the set before, together with giving everyone else useful information. This is especially relevant considering how awful middle tires they looked like in sprint in terms of grain.

Teams changed the race strategy on the move

The qualifying for the main race looked like a flat duel between Piastra and Norris in McLaren, who was young Aussie looked like he could always AS. And he really did it, but a different strategy surpassed and a fine circle split Russell’s Merca between them and in the first order.

The time in Shanghai was strangely wonderful throughout the event, and Sunday was not different if he cloudy slightly into the race. Piastra attached Russell from the start with a little faster start towards the wall of the pit so that George’s entry into high speed turned one endangered. This allowed Norris to withdraw from the outside and catch second place in the great team.

Verstappen’s Red Bull burst aside and that made it possible for Ferraris Hamilton and Leclerc to take the opportunity. Leclerc took a quick tight line, but he would decline a serrated inner edge and slid into his teammate, breaking the lateral fence of his front wing, which then continued with the ground at a speed, but fortunately without piercing Hamilton’s tire.

Surprisingly, Leclerc would calm down despite this obstacle, which has not been changed at his point of view, to be the fastest of two Ferraris, and Lewis would eventually let him go. It was a very fierce effort of Leclerc, who had to hurt by watching Hamilton taking the Sprint victory 24 hours earlier. As it turned out, everything would be in Vena.

It was expected to be a two -rate race, medium/hard/hard, for the optimal glorious victory. Three drivers in the second half of the terrain tried the opposite strategy, and why not, starting with hard tires. Early signs were that this mysterious tire was doing well, but it was confusing as Liam Lawson tossed his Red Bull to park the hard tires in Circle 18, Ollie Bearman in Haasa in Circle 26, and Lance walking in his Aston Martin came in a circle of 36 of 56 laps scheduled.

Because the pace management at their medium tires, the leaders first started drinking in a circle 14. For McLaren led reasonably close and two, Norris had to wait until the circle 15, and that put him back behind Russella. Another overload is needed and that is neatly delivered in style with some hard races that set out in Circle 18, restoring McLaren One-Two.

These tires looked good and dawn began in teams that, against all expectations, could succeed until the end of the race without another point of view, which lasts 23 seconds, if everything goes well.

McLaren is on the column

Now we remembered that Verstappen was in the race as he started finding a grip. Somehow on the lower fuel or simply follows the conditions, and probably even the realization that he did not need so much that he kept the tires, it allowed him to catch Ferraris. In fact, Max would deliver his fastest and front circle on the final tour, which is a little confusing.

Hamilton was intended because it wasn’t to lose anything except he put it behind Verstappen, but on much better tires. Lewis would then push strongly to the end of the race, a factor that may have contributed to his eventual disqualification.

Now the big question was whether a hard tire could really do 42 rounds or more, and the answer was bold yes. Piastra described them in their usual underpassed way as “better than expected.”

Anyone who is a two -clerk like Hamilton and two racing bulls of Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda was not rewarded.

The second question was whether Norris could launch a challenge to his rival Piastra championship, but the disappearance of brake pedal, which is almost non -existent in the last round paid to it, and Norris managed to just keep Russell, who had another good day for Mercedes.

It was 50. One two in McLaren’s history and these days are really on a round.

There were rather desperate races, blocking and overthrowing on the field, especially Liam Lawson and Jack Doohan, who in many ways were unjustly felt exposed in their plants so early in the season. There could be a change.

For the second consecutive Fernando Alonso race, it would not be over, this time due to the problem of the rear brake.

Ferrari pain after the wrong calculation

The stab in the tail was the disqualification after the race and Ferraris and Alpina Pierre Gasly. Leclerc and Gasly were thrown out because of slightly heavy weight. Instead of seeing last year at Spa -us George Russell, in the long run, on one set of tires, he uses a few pounds of treading tires. Also the pace of the race was strong and there was no safety car, so the use of fuel was big, consuming a larger mass. Leclerc’s broken front wing was allowed to replace, but he still had an overweight. What is the way you cut it, it is a wrong calculation of the team that it does not leave enough margins for all circumstances.

Hamilton’s car was thrown out because of running too close to the ground and an overly worn block of legalist skating under half a millimeter. This is the rule that teams stop the prenecesses of the field aircraft to achieve performance, but then every day destroying super -expensive floors.

Especially in the Italian media, this week will be a painful reading for Ferrari, despite the victory of Sprint.

Kimi Antonelli picked up the damage to the floor with debris in the first round and had a relatively calm but solid race to what would eventually be sixth after the disqualification. Fans knew something we didn’t, because he was named the driver of the day.

The rest to get the place after the race were Verstappen, Esteban Ocon and Bearman for Haas, Alex Albona and Carlos Sainz for Williams and Lance Walk for Aston Martin, who all inherited more points.

Norris leaves China with another point compared to Verstappen in the championship than before he arrived, but more malicious for him, Piastra is now only 10 points. Followed by Suzuka. It will become intense between the pairing of mclaren.

Formula 1 is referred to the iconic circle of Suzuk for Japanese Grand Prix from 4-6. April, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with now – No Treaty, cancel anytime