Chinese GP data: What can we learn from the first sprint event of the year?

With the first event of the newly revised sprint format in the books, we have crunched the data to see what can be learned from the mini event ahead of the grand prix on Sunday.

Friday saw one of the more interesting qualifying sessions with rain affecting the teams’ plans while the race itself was actually one of the better sprint events as well.

How the battle for pole was won

Additional reporting by Pablo Hidalgo

The third session of the sprint qualifying may go down as one of the most exciting in recent memory as rain caused havoc amongst the front runners. Max Verstappen in particular found it difficult to keep all four tyres within the circuit but there was one man who did that better than anyone else – Lando Norris.

A reinstated lap time gave Norris what is now the second biggest pole margin (+1.261s) since Nico Rosberg over Sebastian Vettel at the 2014 British GP. 10 years ago the 2016 World Champion also took advantage of wet conditions to grab the pole at Silverstone by +1.620s over the Ferrari driver.

With a bit of controversy and lots of magic under the Shanghai rain, Norris secured P1 in the sprint ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Verstappen.

After a tied Sector 1 and Sector 2 fight, Norris changed his driving style by braking earlier than Hamilton and Alonso to gain more traction on the tricky section of T12 and T13 where he found most of his time advantage against the two most experienced drivers on the grid.

Dry weather was a different story with Red Bull easily on top, something we saw play out during Saturday’s qualifying session.

Ferrari is still struggling with putting the tyres up to temperature during their out lap while McLaren are ahead of Mercedes and Aston Martin by quite some margin, something quite unexpected despite being one of the slowest cars on the long straights. And even more surprising was Stake with both of their drivers inside the final SQ session.

In terms of sectors, the driver quickest in all three was different every time with Alonso, Verstappen and Sergio Perez topping the times at one point. Haas with Nico Hulkenberg was consistently the fastest car on the straights.

The fight for the podium

While Verstappen disappeared over the horizon, it left an intriguing battle for the rest of the podium spots.

Alonso started very well, even trying to catch Hamilton for P2, but in doing so, he killed his tyres too early and created a group of cars behind him with more pace. This in turn helped Hamilton to secure P2 as Perez managed to get very close to him once he passed through the chasing pack of the grid.

For Verstappen, he made a conservative start to the race knowing that his only fight was against himself and his tyres.

Spaniards battling it out in battle for P3

Late on in the sprint, Alonso and Carlos Sainz came head-to-head in an attempt to be the third man standing on the podium and ultimately it ended with Alonso having to retire with a front right puncture. Sainz also did not come away unscathed as he took damage which saw him sink behind Charles Leclerc.

Both ‘gently’ blamed each other in the press pen, saying they were too aggressive, respectively, but, weren’t the sprint races created for these kinds of battles? Isn’t this what the fans demand from the sport? It was a spicy but nice fight on track to watch. More of them, please!

Unanimous tyre selection expect one outlier

No surprises as for the tyre selection for the sprint race. Everyone but George Russell, who ran with the softest compound, ran with medium tyres. Some used, some new. The guys at the front of the pack were in a constant battle pushing each other to the limit and that caused high wear for the medium compound and a high degradation slope compared to the soft.

The final lap times between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were not very different, both running in high 1:42s. With a more conservative approach tomorrow, the soft tyre could become a good option for a first stint as drivers prefer a softer compound for the first laps looking to maximise grip as the tyre gets to its optimal operating temperature earlier.

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