Take a bow, Daniel ricciardo. “The race of the robber” grabbed another come-from-behind victory on Sunday – all six of his victories in F1 came from below third position on the grid and, although he and Red bull got lucky with the timing of the safety car to say Australian would be brought in the highly talented driver in great shape disservice.
It was a masterful Riccardo, selects Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Valtteri Bottas in three clean sweeps as he climbed through the field to sixth. While his partner was kun-Ho with his attempts, he was aggressive, but smooth and silky – late-braking-overtaking Hamilton at the hairpin selection.
And all this after almost no qualification.
If you give a consistently competitive car, he is convinced that he will fight for the title of champion and it’s hard to argue with that. Display, of course, will not do any harm to his contract negotiations or, and 28-year-old will be the man in demand – of course, update at least one of the Mercedes and Ferrari contract drivers. Keep doing what you’re doing, Daniel is a joy to watch.
Rating out of ten: 10
For the second weekend in a row , Valtteri Bottas was thinking about the victory slipped from his grasp. “The worst feeling,” was his blunt assessment, though in this case there is little that could be done.
Finn drove almost a perfect race and a blistering of circles enabled him to wrest the lead from Sebastian Vettel during the first pit stops. The safety car will be his Nemesis as he was not able to respond to stopping the red Bulls, meaning he did not have the opportunity to save cost Daniel Riccardo.
But he has the upper hand in his intra-team battle with Lewis Hamilton. Bottas now a qualified partner in four of the last five Grand Prix, and finished ahead in five of their last six. While Hamilton was well out of his very high standards in the last two weeks, Bottas is already fully recovered after his accident in Melbourne to get some confidence flowing.
Rating out of ten: 9.5
“It was a painful race and not pleasant,” was Kimi Raikkonen ‘s honest summary of your Chinese GP, and although he finished on the podium, it is easy to understand why he felt that way.
Raikkonen was out-qualified Sebastian Vettel less than a tenth of a second, but quickly squeezed his partner on the team Ferrari from the very beginning, losing two places in the first few turns as a result. His first term was then 10 laps longer than his rivals as the Ferrari tried to use it as a blocker Bottas to help charge the Vettel – Raikkonen worth about 16 seconds.
In the end, he only got third place thanks to Max Verstappen and Vettel crash, and it is quite clear where is Raikkonen at Ferrari. They could not have foreseen VSK helping Vettel and Raikkonen harm in Australia – but they knew exactly what they were doing this time.
Rating out of ten: 8
It’s just not clicking for Lewis Hamilton at the moment. As his former team-mate, Nico Rosberg repeatedly said, the only weakness of the four-time world champion is that he has weekends, and there is no way around it: Hamilton spent a week.
Hamilton has been out qualified and raced by Valtteri Bottas in the next Grand Prix, while Hamilton claimed that he was “a different race” on Sunday, his partner proved that Mercedes were indeed race-winning potential. After another disappointing start, you get the sense that Hamilton had a drink together, never to claim the top position.
And how many times during the hybrid era, if ever, we saw how Hamilton was just as easy as it was ricciardo and Verstappen in Shanghai?
Hamilton wears his heart on his sleeve, and it was clear that he was depressed this weekend, telling reporters after the race that he was “tired and looking forward to go.” Considering all the circumstances, he managed to escape with just a nine-point deficit to Vettel and he needs to choose quickly yourself for what he called his “cool” name calling.
Rating out of ten: 6
Max Verstappen and crash of Sebastian Vettel during the Chinese GP.
About Max Verstappen! Make no mistake, the Dutchman had the driver of the red bull standing on the top step of the podium. Instead, as the anthems were playing, he was in search of Sebastian Vettel to apologize in the paddock.
In the space of five laps, Verstappen threw away his chance of victory, and then the podium with unnecessary risks. First, is a rather ambitious attempt at Lewis Hamilton outside of the seven sent him to flight and lost track position to Daniel Riccardo. Then his RAM Vettel in Ferrari at the turn 14 hairpin left him spinning in the playoffs out of the question.
Calls for Verstappen to rein in his driving style only grow louder now made four costly errors in the first three races, including a collision with Hamilton and Vettel on consecutive weekends. He’s still the most exciting talent in the sport, but also some analysis of his – and perhaps his teammate – maneuvers necessary to Baku.
Rating out of ten: 5
Seventh in qualifying, a sixth place in the race. Nico Hulkenberg can’t really do a whole lot more.
Hulkenberg is now just one of the two drivers, Fernando Alonso and others who support qualification to whitewash over his partner, his more highly-rated Carlos Sainz in the Renault. The race, Hulkenberg was impressive too, because, despite the substandard vacation, he stayed in the conflict, and then the most aggressive strategy Reno come safety car.
Overtaking German compatriot Vettel would have been fine despite the damage to the Ferrari, and not many drivers who are in better shape than Hulkenberg at the moment.
Rating out of ten: 9.5
Whether the driver can get more from this than McLaren ‘s Fernando Alonso is currently receiving? You’d be hard-pressed to find one.
Alonso signed a new points to finish his seventh place here, and so far not too impressive, considering the McLaren was aimed at podiums coming in 2018, you need only look at the improvement of the race, to see how well he manages. But for Q3, but also out-qualifying his teammate in a dysfunctional package, Alonso made an incredible 17 places from his grid position in three races.
He could be even better in Shanghai if Alonso was not caught in the safety car, but he still rolled back the years with an elegant, but risky, too late to overtake Vettel.
Rating out of ten: 9
For 19 laps, Sebastian Vettel was walking towards his third win of the season and extending their lead at the top of the world Cup. Instead, the German finished limping across the finish line, leaving Shanghai with his advantage reduced to nine points.
It was some turn of fate.
The range of p. Vettel pole, Saturday was a stunning peep Kimi Raikkonen, but he can attest to the fact that he was too aggressive on the line on Sunday, as he squeezed his partner standing Raikkonen two positions.
That left him vulnerable from behind, but it was the Ferrari slow reaction at the pit stop Valtteri Bottas’ which cost him his lead. This promises to be an intriguing battle for the lead between the pair before deploying the safety car ended the chances of challenging Vettel for the victory.
Daniel ricciardo drove past, before Vettel saw his race ruined too zealously Max Verstappen crashed into his side.
It was a disappointing end to the weekend from Vettel, but he can take heart from it now appears that Ferrari will hold the best package in F1 in 2018, and not a Mercedes. China could prove the key moment in the title race? Only time will tell.
Rating out of ten: 9
A small margin hurt Carlos Sainz this year. Although there has never been a large gap in their lap, Hulkenberg leads 3-0 Sainz in qualifying, and Nico full use of their advantage this Sunday, fending off Sainz in the first turn and never return in the future.
Fifty-six laps later, it was a similar story for Sainz when he narrowly failed to pass Vettel in eighth, leaving its longitudinal 22-3 Hulkenberg in the drivers ‘ championship. Carlos needed rebound in Baku.
Rating out of ten: 7
After losing his partner Haas in qualifying for the first time this season, Kevin Magnussen enjoyed an impressive start of the race – but there was another driver who may have been hoping for a different security strategy of the car.
While his play off the opponents raised to the seventh Dan, then he was on old tires and in the end had to settle for one point.
“I was just unlucky,” said Magnussen, who has consistently run in 2018 continues.
Rating out of ten: 7
A difficult weekend for Esteban Windows in which the error denied him a place in Q3, and then got involved in a squabble with Sergio Perez.
Windows blamed his teammate for losing positions at the start, as Perez fell in the field, while his attempt to undercut Fernando Alonso was canceled for the safety of the vehicle.
Rating out of ten: 6
There was a glimmer of a breakthrough in 2018 Sergio Perez in qualifying, when the Mexican reached the 3rd quarter for the first time. But what a ray of optimism was snuffed out at the start on Sunday when he went off the rails in turn four. And it was pretty much that.
“I lost a lot of places to eat and it’s largely ruined our weekend,” Sergio said. Not really their fault, Perez is still a point this term.
Rating out of ten: 6
2018 not quite work for Stoffel Vandorn else. For all three races until now, he was outqualified one position mate Alonso, and then is unable to match the performance of the Spaniard on race day.
The potential of a point payment was lost in the first round, when Vandorn went backward, not forward, and a one-stop strategy does not work. “It was not the day we hoped for,” he concluded simply.
Rating out of ten: 6
Lance stroll made a storming start in Shanghai, increase from P12 to P18, but soon took off the drivers around him with Williams still fights for leg. But he didn’t stop under the safety car, but while 14th doesn’t sound like much, it really is a big improvement in Australia and Bahrain.
Rating out of ten: 7
It says a lot about how far Williams has fallen that Sergey Sirotkin best weekend so far in Formula 1 is still out in Q1 and had to settle for 15th in the final classification.
The Russian managed to drag FW41 in the TOP 10 in final practice, but was unable to repeat this on Saturday Afternoon, missing out on the second part of qualifying by five hundredths of a second. Sirotkin ahead of teammate to walk, as the canadian made a rapid start and he was unable to return forward.
Rating out of ten: 6.5
Back to reality with a bump for Marcus Ericsson in China. A week later he scored his first F1 points in three years, Marcus was flat-the last in qualifying, although his form was clearly better on race day when a decent end-of-race pace allowed him to finish 16th as the lead Sauber.
Rating out of ten: 6
Romain Grosjean was left destroyed his misfortune, as he was one of the biggest losers of the safety car period. It was firm to compete for points, and ran in R11 to “Golden” Toro gathered together, but not running on fresh tyres left him at the mercy of those who follow after reboot.
While Grosjean managed to qualify Kevin Magnussen, he was left fuming saying to move aside for his teammate in the opening six laps. He will be hoping that it changes state in Azerbaijan after the start of the season that has not produced the results his performances may have deserved.
Rating out of ten: 7
Pilots Toro Rosso in the Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley faced during the Chinese GP
After highs in Bahrain, this was some comedown for Pierre Gasly and Toro Rosso. The Frenchman came out of the qualification at the first attempt before breaking the first rule of motorcycling, by crashing into a team-mate Brendon Hartley.
It may not cost the team points, but Gasly had to settle for 18th and left the head of the team Franz toast fuming. Red bull can spend a little more condescending to his younger driver after the resulting safety car helped ricciardo to win, but Gasly, will try to make amends in two weeks.
Rating out of ten: 5
Charles Leclerc began to find out rather painfully that it is a steep step up from Formula 2 to Formula 1, As a youngster the other littered with errors.
Leclerc is clearly still finding his Sauber a handful as he span in the final stage Q1, and then again in the race, he was the last of the cars to finish.
“Charles is expected to be the wonder boy, but he fought,” sky F1’s Martin Brundle said in the commentary Leclerc went to the turn 14 hairpin. A 20-year term and hopes should quickly learn, but it is not the introduction of many expected from the protégé Ferrari.
Rating out of ten: 5.5
Did not finish
Just retired from a hectic race, it was a tough Sunday from the beginning to the end of Brendon Hartley. After an impressive qualifying performance saw him ahead of Q2 Gasly.
Hartley started on the super soft tyres, but couldn’t find the pace, nor was that the connection won’t last long. Later, a misunderstanding with his team Toro Rosso meant he didn’t expect charging Gasly attempt to overtake in the hairpin, and it more or less ended his day.
In the end he resigned because of problems with the transmission.
Rating out of ten: 5.5
Who will come out on top in four rounds, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull in the battle for supremacy in F1 in 2018? Watch Azerbaijan GP live on sky sports F1 April 27-29. To Make Sky Sports F1.
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