Verstappen and Piastri shine in Chinese Grand Prix, Lawson sinks again
Red Bull Content Pool
General
The Chinese Grand Prix produced strong performances from Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, while Liam Lawson again dissapointed. Lando Norris had to acknowledge his teammate's superiority, who was faster all weekend. These are the rankings GPBlog gives the Formula 1 drivers after the second race weekend of the year.
Verstappen maximises, Lawson disappoints
Verstappen continued to impress in a Red Bull that was seen as the fourth fastest car in China. He made the most of the RB21 and made no mistakes across the weekend. Although his car seemed less competitive, he still managed to produce strong performances, which means he is still second in the championship after two Grands Prix and a sprint race, eight points behind Lando Norris.
Verstappen's teammate, Liam Lawson, had yet another dramatic weekend. Whereas Verstappen was still able to maximise results with underperforming machinery in an overall difficult weekend for Red Bull, the New Zealander did not get beyond last place in both qualifying sessions and still has no points behind his name.
Racing Bulls, the team from which Lawson was promoted to Red Bull prior to the current F1 season, is actually in the form of its life. So is Yuki Tsunoda, as Helmut Marko himself pointed out. The Japanese drove an extremely strong weekend, as did his teammate Isack Hadjar, but while Tsunoda had a freak front wing main plate break off down the main straight, his teammate had a failed race strategy and consequently neither saw their efforts rewarded with points at the flag.
Piastri dominates GP weekend in China
For McLaren, Piastri had an impressive weekend and managed to take the third victory of his career by dominating the race from pole position. Teammate, Norris, had a harder time and had a messy weekend with mistakes in qualifying and the sprint race. He also failed to outperform his teammate all weekend, who was looking for redemption following the disappointment at his home race the previous week.
George Russell once again showed why he is seen as the new leader at Mercedes. He was eventually able to turn his brilliant qualifying lap into a podium, while his former teammate Lewis Hamilton was not as good in the Grand Prix as he was druing the sprint sessions of the weekend. The drama for Ferrari compounded when both the Briton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified after their cars failed to pass the FIA's post-race inspections.
F1 driver Rankings for the Chinese GP
Oscar Piastri - 10
George Russell - 9
Lando Norris - 7
Max Verstappen - 9
Esteban Ocon - 8
Andrea Kimi Antonelli - 8
Alexander Albon - 8
Oliver Bearman - 8
Lance Stroll - 7.5
Carlos Sainz - 6,5
Isack Hadjar - 7.5
Liam Lawson - 3
Jack Doohan - 5.5
Gabriel Bortoleto - 5.5
Nico Hulkenberg - 5.5
Yuki Tsunoda - 8
Fernando Alonso - 6
Charles Leclerc - 8
Lewis Hamilton - 7.5
Pierre Gasly - 7
This article was written in collaboration with Norberto Mujica.
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