This data shows how supreme Verstappen was in China
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Max Verstappen won the Chinese Grand Prix with a 13.7-second lead over Lando Norris who finished second. Without safety cars, however, that could have been much more. The data from the GP shows just how dominant Verstappen really was.
Verstappen has won Grands Prix by a bigger margin than last weekend in China. Yet he was rarely as dominant as he was at the Shanghai International Circuit. The Dutchman still struggled in the sprint shootout but completely ensured the Chinese weekend was under his control from the sprint race onwards.
It was already noticeable that Verstappen was able to win the sprint race from P4. Verstappen became the first driver from outside the top three on the grid to win a sprint race by a margin of 13 seconds. Yet, at the time, everyone still thought it was because of Fernando Alonso's defensive work. On Sunday, it turned out that Verstappen was simply that much faster.
That's how much faster Verstappen was in China
For the first few laps of the race, Verstappen had free rein as Perez allowed himself to be overtaken by Fernando Alonso at the start. Perez needed five laps to get past Alonso and was then able to attack Verstappen. The gap at the time he passed Alonso was 4.7 seconds. However, the gap did not narrow.
In the eight laps that followed, until the moment they would both come in for a pit stop, Verstappen widened the gap to a margin of 9.3 seconds. Verstappen moved 4.6 seconds ahead of his teammate in eight laps, averaging 0.575s per lap faster in the same car.
After the second safety car, Lando Norris also attempted to keep up with Verstappen, but Norris failed to match Verstappen's times. In the 25 laps run after the second and final restart, Verstappen moved 13.7 seconds away from his good friend. The average difference per lap was 0.548s.
Perez no match for Verstappen
After the second safety car, Perez had to overtake Charles Leclerc, which eventually took him seven laps. When Perez finally overtook Leclerc on lap 39, there were still 18 laps to go, and his gap to Verstappen was 9.4 seconds. Just like at the start of the race, Verstappen also pulled away.
This is strange because Verstappen had no reason to give everything anymore. In P3, Perez still has a reason to squeeze everything out of his car to get P2. However, the Mexican does not even manage to catch up with Norris. In the last 18 laps, Perez came a mere three-tenths closer to Norris.
Over those 18 laps, Perez certainly does not gain any ground on Verstappen. The 9.4 seconds at the start of that stint had increased to a deficit of 19.1 seconds at the finish line. Perez again lost more than half a second per lap on average: 0.538s, to be precise.
So, while Fernando Alonso's and Charles Leclerc's defensive actions certainly helped Verstappen, that is certainly not what he owed his wins to. Verstappen was simply too strong for the competition, even for the driver with the same equipment.