In the absence of emotions and fight for victory, once again for Max Verstappen, fourth of the season, it was Fernando Alonso who put the salt and pepper in the Shanghai race. The Asturian gave a wonderful start, in which with an outside he came to second.
However, the magic of the Asturian did not go much further. With a changed tire strategy (three stops) and with mechanical limitations, the Aston Martin could not maintain the podium and had to content itself with a 7th place after a good final comeback.
Carlos Sainz, this time, had to settle for adding the 10 points of fifth position. Lando Norris and Checo Pérez accompanied Verstappen on the podium of the Chinese GP.
The exit offered different views this time: behind the two Red Bulls, Fernando Alonso's green car. When the traffic lights went out, Verstappen remained in front and the Spaniard was very skillful, sneaking past Pérez from the outside and conquering second position. A daring move by the Spaniard, knowing that the Mexican would regain his position sooner rather than later.
It didn't go so well for Sainz, who dropped from seventh to ninth place, although he soon regained eighth place from Hülkenberg to position himself behind his teammate Leclerc. Norris and Piastri, 4th and 5th, maintained their positions and Russell progressed to 6th place.
Logic and physics prevailed on lap 5: Pérez's Red Bull easily overtook Alonso's Aston Martin, who had already lost almost 5 seconds behind Verstappen. The Asturian had Norris's McLaren in his rearview mirror, hooked to the rear wing, hungry for a podium. The Englishman overtook him on lap 7, without opposition from the Spaniard, who now had Piastri behind him.
With the two Red Bulls escaped –Verstappen in another world, with more than 8s over Pérez in the v. 11-, and Alonso in the middle blocking, the movements took place between the Ferraris, with Leclerc overtaking Russell and Piastri to reach 4th place. Sainz, with more difficulties, rose to 6th.
The first stops came on lap 11-12/56. Alonso stopped in 12th to put on the hard rubber and dropped to 9th place, ahead of Russell, with whom he would fight for the real position. Verstappen and Pérez, more than enough, allowed themselves to stop at the same time (v. 14), and the Dutchman even went first again, overtaking the three cars that preceded him after the stop. Sainz stopped on lap 18 and lost position with Hülkenberg and Piastri. Norris did it in v. 23, taking advantage of a virtual safety-car and emerged third, ahead of Alonso, fourth after the pit-stop dance.
Bottas's damaged car at the foot of the track became a Safety-car, so the entire grid made the second pit stop to change tires, most of them hard ones (so as not to stop again). As a result of the stops, Alonso, with soft tires, dropped to 6th place, behind Sainz, 5th. They had Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc and Pérez in front of them.
The race was resumed on lap 27/56. But when the lap was restarted, a collision between Tsunoda and Magnussen, and between Ricciardo and Stroll, led to the appearance of the second Safety-car. Alonso was able to overtake Sainz and place 5th, behind Pérez, for the new relaunch.
The race restarted for the third time on lap 32/56. There were no overtakes on this occasion. Verstappen took the opportunity to rebuild the distance with his immediate pursuer, Norris. Alonso was unable to take advantage of his soft tyre, with Pérez too far away, attacking Leclerc. The Mexican, superior, snatched third place from the Monegasque (v. 39) to reestablish the power of the Red Bull.
Alonso's third stop was inevitable. On lap 44 he stopped to put on the medium tire. He fell to 12th place, behind Albon, with 12 laps left to climb to the points. Sainz was 5th, behind his teammate, but very far away.
Alonso's climb, with a new and softer tire than the rest, was immediate. He overtook Albon, Ocon, set the best lap of the race (which he took from Verstappen), he ate Hülkenberg, Hamilton - after having a scare when he went out into the dirt -, and Piastri.
It was the limit. He did not catch up with Russell, in 6th position, so his progress remained at 6 points for 7th place and the extra point for the best lap of the race.
Sainz did not see his fifth position in danger (10 points), while Norris, 2nd, achieved his best position of the year, with Pérez third.
