Verstappen continues his fantastic form
Max Verstappen took his fourth win this season at the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix from pole position, after winning the Sprint on Saturday.
He cantered to a 13-second winning margin over McLaren's Lando Norris, with his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez completing the podium positions in third place.
This means that the dominant Dutchman now has a 25 point gap to Perez, the championship runner-up, as he sets his sights on his fourth drivers' title.
Had it not been for a rear brake failure at the Australian Grand Prix, he would've most likely equalled the record for the most consecutive victories from the start of a Formula One season.
Five wins from as many races is a feat only achieved by Williams driver Nigel Mansell in 1992 and Michael Schumacher for Ferrari in 2004.
A welcome return for an interesting circuit
The Shanghai International Circuit returned to the F1 calendar after a five year absence due to China's "zero COVID policy" brought into effect following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
The track often splits opinions between fans and experts alike, with some claiming it is just another boring complex designed by race track architect Hermann Tilke.
However this weekend's sessions, especially the Sprint and its' qualifying proved that this polarising venue can produce fantastic action.
Although the action on Sunday was more dull, that is more an indictment of the lack of competitiveness in modern Formula One even with such a small field spread.
The return of the Chinese race provided an amicable product for spectators, which should help in quelling the public opinion on the venue for now.
A successful Sprint revitalises the format
Another quantifiable beneficiary of this race was the ever-controversial Sprint format, as it made its first appearance of the 2024 season so far.
The qualifying session for the supplementary race was held in wet weather that worsened throughout, and the unpredictability provided some extraordinary entertainment.
After the first two segments saw the usual casualties drop out of contention, the final eight minutes saw positions constantly chop and change as drivers acclimatised to the conditions.
Initially Lando Norris' provisional pole position lap was deleted due to exceeding track limits at the final corner, which handed the advantage to the seven time champion Lewis Hamilton.
However after the FIA reviewed the infringement of the McLaren driver, they realised that although Norris had indeed gone beyond the white line, he'd also gone into the gravel trap.
This meant that any advantage gained by extending the corner's boundaries were negated by being slowed down by driving through the gravel on the way to the line.
Although Norris started from pole position in the Sprint, Hamilton aggressively assumed the lead in the opening turns as his rival went wide.
The Mercedes driver led until lap nine of 19, when a resurgent Verstappen who started in an uncharacteristically low fourth place overtook him.
After that the Red Bull amassed a 13-second lead in the remaining ten laps to Hamilton, who finished in the runners-up slot, while Norris slumped to sixth in the end.
The Sprint sessions were arguably the best so far this season out of any qualifying or race, so it will have most certainly swayed the opinions of some doubters.
Mixed emotions for Hamilton and Norris
Although Lando Norris struggled from pole position in the Saturday race, he will undoubtedly be pleased with a second place finish on Sunday.
He has now amassed 15 podiums without yet attaining a race victory, a record he broke in Melbourne earlier this season after surpassing Nick Heidfeld's total of 13.
There have been many occasions where the Brit had a chance at taking his elusive first triumph, most notably at the Russian Grand Prix in 2021.
It was a badly informed strategy call that foiled him in Sochi, but more recently his rostrums have been a sign of progression, not lost potential.
He scored seven of his career top three finishes in the latter half of last season as the McLaren team had an uptake in performance.
However it's unlikely that his form will lead him to a win in the near future as he has committed to the papaya team long term.
He is contracted to stay with them until the end of the 2025 season, and unless the bulletproof Red Bull team release their stranglehold on F1, a first place is unlikely for Norris.
Conversely to Lando's predicament however is that of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, as the seven time champion has a winning drought stretching back several years.
His last win came at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix during his intense title battle with eventual champion Max Verstappen.
However the marked decline of his team since then has prevented him from adding to his career tally of a record 103 race victories.
The Sprint race was the first time he'd appeared on an F1 podium since the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix, however he couldn't continue his impressive form on Sunday.
He qualified an abysmal 18th, and struggled in the opening stint of the race as he failed to acclimatise to the characteristics of the soft tyres.
Despite this, a slow climb through the rest of the 56 laps saw him finish ninth and continue the worst run of form in his career.
This is the first time Hamilton hasn't registered a top five finish in the opening quintet of races in any of his previous 17 seasons in Formula One.
This downturn in results places doubts over whether Scuderia Ferrari made the right choice to drop three time race winner Carlos Sainz in favour of the Brit.
He needs to proverbially and literally put his foot down in the remainder of the year to justify a move to the illustrious Italian outfit on a performance basis.