Aston Martin’s petition for a right to review the penalty given to Fernando Alonso in the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix has been rejected. Alonso was penalized for causing a collision with Carlos Sainz late in the Sprint in Shanghai, earning a …
Aston Martin’s petition for a right to review the penalty given to Fernando Alonso in the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix has been rejected.
Alonso was penalized for causing a collision with Carlos Sainz late in the Sprint in Shanghai, earning a time penalty and three penalty points that put him half way to a race ban. Aston Martin lodged a petition for the right to review the penalty earlier this week, meaning it had to prove there was a “significant and relevant new element which was unavailable to the party seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned”.
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The hearing took place via videoconference on Friday morning as it involved stewards from the previous race who are not in Miami, and Aston Martin submitted that the “significant and relevant new element” was the forward-facing camera view from Alonso’s car, that was unavailable to the team and the stewards at the time of the original decision.
While the stewards agreed that the footage was new and unavailable at the time, they did not feel it met the threshold of being significant, because “while it showed the incident from a different angle, it added nothing material to the visual perspective that we already had”.
As a result, the request was dismissed and the penalty points stand.
Alonso was critical of FIA stewarding prior to the decision being made public on Saturday night, as he stated “I do feel that nationality matters” when it comes to penalties being given to drivers, following his comments that Lewis Hamilton would not be penalized for his role in an incident at the start of the Sprint in Miami “because he’s not Spanish”.
Aston Martin has lodged a petition for a right to review the penalty given to Fernando Alonso during the Sprint in the Chinese Grand Prix. Alonso was penalized for colliding with Carlos Sainz during a fierce battle in the closing stages of the …
Aston Martin has lodged a petition for a right to review the penalty given to Fernando Alonso during the Sprint in the Chinese Grand Prix.
Alonso was penalized for colliding with Carlos Sainz during a fierce battle in the closing stages of the Sprint, with the pair making contact on multiple occasions and Alonso’s attempt to regain the position on the inside of Turn 9 pushing both cars wide.
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Alonso picked up a puncture and Sainz damage in the incident, but then it was the Aston Martin driver who was given a 10-second time penalty and three penalty points on his Super License afterwards.
The penalty points mean Alonso is now on six for the past 12 months, and six more before March of next year would lead to an automatic one-race ban. The first three points were handed out for the incident with George Russell in Melbourne this year.
Aston Martin is now seeking a review of the penalty in China, with an initial hearing to take place via videoconference on Friday in Miami to determine if a “significant and relevant new element which was unavailable to the party seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned” exists.
If the stewards decide that there is such an element, then the hearing will proceed to a second part to review the initial decision – but not necessarily change it – and at that stage any interested parties are allowed to join the hearing.
Ferrari has also been summoned to the initial hearing.
Carlos Sainz wants to review the fight with Charles Leclerc at the start of the Chinese Grand Prix after feeling both lost positions focusing on each other. The two Ferrari teammates had a small collision in the Sprint on Saturday, with Leclerc …
Carlos Sainz wants to review the fight with Charles Leclerc at the start of the Chinese Grand Prix after feeling both lost positions focusing on each other.
The two Ferrari teammates had a small collision in the Sprint on Saturday, with Leclerc saying he felt Sainz had crossed the line in the way they race each other but expected the issue to be resolved easily with pre-race discussions. However, Turn 1 on the opening lap then saw Leclerc appear to run Sainz wide and both George Russell and Nico Hulkenberg were able to take advantage.
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“A bit of a tough race for us,” Sainz said. “First of all I think we need to review the start because we had a strange line there through Turn 1 and Turn 2, which meant the Mercedes and the Haas passed both Charles and I which cost us probably a bit of race time.
“We had an issue there at the start with both cars going wide and two cars that shouldn’t overtake us overlook us. From then on we had to stop very early for the hard (tire).
“The timing of the safety car wasn’t ideal, because everyone could put on a new tire in front of me and I was left with a very old tire for the last stint and I had to nurse the tire home for a P5. Considering all this, I think P5 was the maximum, so not too bad.”
When pushed on whether he felt Leclerc had driven aggressively at the start in response to the incident in the Sprint, Sainz replied: “I prefer not to comment, but it’s obviously quite clear that it cost us both two positions so in the end it helped neither of us.”
Leclerc himself dismissed the incident as “just the start, it’s always very difficult with the tires, so it is what it is”, and from his point of view, the pair had already discussed Saturday’s incident and cleared the air, even though Sainz had originally disagreed that talks took place.
“Yes, we spoke briefly before qualifying and much longer after qualifying with Fred [Vasseur] and everything is fine,” Leclerc said. “I’m not going into details but, as I said, sometimes I went over the limit and sometimes he went over the limit, but it’s part of the game and now we’ve had a discussion and it’s fine.”
Lando Norris says his second place at the Chinese Grand Prix came as such a surprise because he expected to be “nowhere near top three” based on the Sprint. McLaren struggled for race pace compared to Red Bull and Ferrari in the Sprint, with Norris …
Lando Norris says his second place at the Chinese Grand Prix came as such a surprise because he expected to be “nowhere near top three” based on the Sprint.
McLaren struggled for race pace compared to Red Bull and Ferrari in the Sprint, with Norris losing the lead at the start of the race and slipping to seventh, eventually finishing sixth. As a result he thought fifth place was McLaren’s likely best finish from his starting position of fourth behind the Red Bulls and Fernando Alonso, but he cleared the Aston Martin early on and then used strategy to beat Sergio Perez to second.
“A big improvement today compared to yesterday,” Norris said. “So I think that’s why we were probably a bit surprised. I’m surprised to be sitting here today, but it’s a nice surprise of course. Difficult to say, we’ve been struggling a little bit — I’m sure everyone does — with certain things throughout the whole season, which have always been limiting us.
“It probably felt similar-ish to Australia. Australia, I felt comfortable and the car felt pretty good as well. So just much better today, things came alive today, the conditions cooled down, the wind calmed down and both of these things, I think, played into our hands a little bit more.
“That’s why yesterday, if you asked me, ‘What do we expect for today?’ it definitely was nowhere near top three, or even maybe top five. So, a pleasant surprise. The car felt much better, but obviously, not quick enough to match the Red Bulls.”
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Norris insists there was no downplaying of expectations at McLaren, with the car just performing better in certain areas and the race playing out more smoothly than in the Sprint.
“We were just quicker than we thought,” he said. “The limitations, the places we expected to struggle, probably a lot more, we didn’t struggle as much in. So these longer corners, like Turn 1, have always been a big weakness for us. Part of Turn 1 was probably better than we’re expecting and the second part was probably as we were expecting.
“So it’s just we’re still learning about the car. It’s as simple as that. This track is very different. The tarmac is quite odd. Maybe that played into our hands a bit more than we were thinking, maybe with the old tarmac, we would have struggled a bit more. So just little things. We’re not making it up. We’re giving our honest opinion on where we want to be.
“I think if we were to go into a weekend, and we knew we’re going to be strong, we’ve said it. So more often than not, we don’t feel that optimistic, because all year we’ve been behind Red Bull, all year we’ve been behind Ferrari, there’s no reason for us to suddenly think we should be ahead.
“Nothing really pointed to us having an amazing race today, especially the Sprint race yesterday, which was our best kind of version of events of what can go down. But things just went to plan and kind of went very smoothly from that point onwards.
“I didn’t make a mistake in Turn 1 and go off, that’s a good start! Got past the Aston and then you can just control the race. And that was very different to yesterday.”
Max Verstappen mastered two safety car restarts and a long final stint on hard tires to ace the Chinese Grand Prix. Verstappen was rapid off the line, taking the first turn without dispute and sprinting to a 6s lead in the first six laps of the race …
Max Verstappen mastered two safety car restarts and a long final stint on hard tires to ace the Chinese Grand Prix.
Verstappen was rapid off the line, taking the first turn without dispute and sprinting to a 6s lead in the first six laps of the race to make clear he was in no mood to be challenged.
Verstappen and Red Bull were in control from the start. Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
The Dutchman ceded the lead only during the pit stop windows, and the only moments he lacked total control was during a bizarre set of back-to-back safety car interventions just before the halfway mark of the 56-lap grand prix.
The first was a delayed call from race control after Valtteri Bottas stopped on track with smoke billowing from the rear of his Sauber. Race director Niles Wittich was late in triggering the virtual safety car despite Bottas climbing from his car in the exposed run-off at the end of the straight leading into Turn 11.
When marshals were unable to wheel the car away without the aid of a recovery vehicle, the full safety car was called, forcing Verstappen and most other drivers onto the hard tire with 33 laps still to go.
The difficulty of the long final stint was eased by a second caution triggered almost immediately upon the end of the first for a pair of messy crashes. The first came before the resumption, when Lance Stroll clumsily rear-ended Daniel Ricciardo as the field prepared to restart heading into the turn 14 hairpin.
Ricciardo was catapulted momentarily airborne and into the back of Oscar Piastri. The RB car was too severely damaged to continue the race, while Stroll was able to pit for repairs and continue.
RB’s day went from bad to worse only a few seconds later, when Kevin Magnussen tagged Yuki Tsunoda in a botched passing attempt into Turn 6, understeering into his rival. The contact broke Tsunoda’s rear-right corner and forced the Japanese driver to retire on the spot.
Both Stroll and Magnussen were penalized 10s for their errors.
When Verstappen was eventually allowed to resume the grand prix, he was faultless in the lead, eking out a 13.7s advantage to the checkered flag for an easy fourth win of the season.
“It felt amazing,” he said. “All weekend I think we were incredibly quick.
“The car was basically on rails, and I could do whatever I wanted to do with it. These weekends are incredible to feel. To achieve what we have this weekend is fantastic.”
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Lando Norris was a superb second after an early decision to switch to a one-stop strategy. The Briton capitalized on the Bottas VSC to make a cheap pit stop that elevated him to net second, which he deftly held through to the end of the race.
“I’m very happy for the whole team,” he said. “It just worked out today. I don’t know why, I wasn’t really expecting it.
“I could manage the tires a lot, I could just push, the car felt great and I felt comfortable. Good day, good points and another podium, so I’m very happy.”
Sergio Perez was surprisingly inert in his pursuit of Norris in the second half of the race. The Mexican dropped to fourth in the pit lane after double stacking behind Verstappen during the safety car, but after making quick work of Charles Leclerc for third, he was powerless to reel in Norris.
“Once you start fighting like that in the early laps [of a stint], the life of the tires goes off dramatically,” he explained. “At least we managed to get onto the podium.
“We didn’t read the conditions as perfectly as we could. Overall I think it was a strong weekend, and we understand the reasons why the race pace was a little bit down.”
Leclerc was a comfortable fourth after identifying the opportunity to make just one stop early in the race. He was backed up by teammate Carlos Sainz, who had to heavily manage his pace to make it to the end of the race after making his sole pit stop before any of the safety car interventions, leaving him exposed to George Russell late.
Fresh tires weren’t enough for Russell to overcome the Mercedes car’s troubles with the Shanghai circuit, however, and in the final 15 laps he had to manage his pace to guard against a fast-finishing Fernando Alonso.
Alonso had been running fifth after the safety cars but was stuck on the soft tire, necessitating another stop to make it to the finish. A fresh set of mediums fitted at the end of lap 43 dropped him to 12th, but an aggressive charge back into the points ended with him in seventh and just 4.6s behind Russell.
Piastri struggled with tire degradation in the first half of the race and diffuser damage after the Stroll-initiated crash in the second, leaving him to limp home to eighth.
Lewis Hamilton gained nine places on his 18th-place grid spot after capitalizing on the mid-race interventions to finish ninth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, who scored the final point for Haas.
Esteban Ocon finished 11th ahead of Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly and Zhou Guanyu, while the penalized Magnussen, Sargeant — who was punished for passing Hulkenberg after the second safety car line during the safety car period — and Stroll finishing at the back of the pack.
Aston Martin’s protest against the Chinese Grand Prix qualifying results based on Carlos Sainz’s participation has been dismissed by the stewards. Sainz had crashed during Q2 after spinning out of the final corner, hitting the wall on the inside of …
Aston Martin’s protest against the Chinese Grand Prix qualifying results based on Carlos Sainz’s participation has been dismissed by the stewards.
Sainz had crashed during Q2 after spinning out of the final corner, hitting the wall on the inside of the track and breaking his front wing as well as damaging the hoardings on the barrier. The session was red flagged but Sainz was able to restart his power unit and the damage was light enough that he could then return to the pits for repairs and rejoin before the end of Q2.
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With Sainz advancing to Q3 and Lance Stroll eliminated in 11th place, Aston Martin protested the qualifying results based on Article 39.6 of the Sporting Regulations, that states: “Any driver whose car stops on the track during the qualifying session or the sprint shootout will not be permitted to take any further part in that session.”
A number of other teams had representatives in the hearing into the Aston Martin process, and stated that there had been multiple examples in the past of cars stopping on track and being able to continue without outside assistance and being allowed to rejoin the session without protest. That was an argument the stewards sided with, and dismissed the protest.
In the hearing, “Aston also accepted that there were prior examples of cars stopping on track and being allowed to continue, despite the plain wording of Article 39.6. However, they felt that stopping, in this case, for 1 minute and 17 seconds was too long and therefore should not have been permitted.”
When faced with the question of duration, the stewards stated past examples and race control’s judgement should be followed on the issue.
“Absent clear guidance in the regulations or an agreed, established practice of when too long was too long, we considered that this was a discretion best left to race control,” the stewards’ decision read.
“In the above circumstances, taking into account the numerous examples where cars had stopped for different lengths of time and were permitted to restart and continue to participate in the session concerned, we considered that the decision taken by race control was not inconsistent with past practice nor in breach of Article 39.6.
“We considered that even if the plain wording of Article 39.6 warranted a more stark conclusion, the consistent practice in the sport to date did not warrant a setting aside of the discretion exercised by race control by us as stewards.”
It was also pointed out that an F1 Commission meeting in July last year saw the teams reach an agreement “to add ‘outside assistance’ to Article 39.6”, although that change was not subsequently made.
As a result of the protest being dismissed, Sainz retains his seventh place on the grid for Sunday’s race.
Charles Leclerc says Carlos Sainz crossed the line in how hard he was fighting during the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix but expects to be able to clear the air with his teammate ahead of Sunday’s race. Sainz sustained damage in contact with …
Charles Leclerc says Carlos Sainz crossed the line in how hard he was fighting during the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix but expects to be able to clear the air with his teammate ahead of Sunday’s race.
Sainz sustained damage in contact with Fernando Alonso late in the Sprint, an incident that saw Leclerc able to attack his teammate into the penultimate corner later in the same lap. With Leclerc on the outside of the hairpin, Sainz ran deep and made contact with the other Ferrari, forcing Leclerc wide in a move that he believes was too aggressive between teammates.
“I think so (Sainz crossed the line),” Leclerc said. “But to be honest, I have crossed the line also myself in the past, and when this happens, we normally have a discussion, we clear the air, which we went through that in the past already and it went really well. So I have no worries that it will be the case also this weekend, but today he went a bit over the limit.
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“A contact between us two, being in a different race situation because I had saved quite a bit the tires… I had good pace at the end, it was a bit of a shame we lost that gap to [Sergio] Perez and couldn’t go and take him. But it’s like this, at the end, P4, it could have been P3, one point, you can always do better.”
Sainz says he will apologize if he went too far in his defensive move against Leclerc but pointed to the earlier incident with Alonso as the catalyst for his car being compromised.
“I think I did a good start, I was pushing Max [Verstappen] hard at the beginning because I knew if I was passing him, I had a strong chance of winning the race,” Sainz said. “That probably killed my tires a bit and I was managing for the rest of the race. Until I got Fernando, and then behind Fernando, I did a really good move around the outside of Turn 7.
“Then he decided to be a bit all or nothing into me into Turn 9, which cost us both the race. I picked up damage and a lot of dirt in my tire from that optimistic move. And then yeah, from there on, I was sliding around with the damage on my car and dirt on my tires.
“I was doing everything I could to defend and sliding maybe, had a bit of a moment there with Charles. I apologize if I did something over the limit, but we were all racing really hard today, and I was doing my best to keep it under control out there.”
Leclerc and Sainz went on to qualify in sixth and seventh respectively for the grand prix on Sunday, although Sainz crashed to bring out red flags in Q2 before continuing, and his result is under protest from Aston Martin.
Aston Martin has protested the results of qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix due to the crash suffered by Carlos Sainz. Sainz lost control out of the final corner during Q2 and spun to the inside of the track, hitting the barrier and stopping with …
Aston Martin has protested the results of qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix due to the crash suffered by Carlos Sainz.
Sainz lost control out of the final corner during Q2 and spun to the inside of the track, hitting the barrier and stopping with a broken front wing. The red flag was brought out to interrupt the session, but Sainz was then able to restart his car without external help, and returned to the pits under his own power.
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Ferrari was then able to replace the front wing and check the car for other damage before Sainz rejoined the session and advanced to Q3, while Lance Stroll was knocked out in 11th place for Aston Martin.
The protest from Aston Martin is against a breach of Article 39.6 of the Sporting Regulations, that states: “Any driver whose car stops on the track during the qualifying session or the Sprint shootout will not be permitted to take any further part in that session.”
Lewis Hamilton attributes his Q1 exit at the Chinese Grand Prix to a setup gamble that backfired, but promised a fighting drive from 18th on the grid. The Mercedes driver finished second in the Sprint on Saturday morning after leading the first part …
Lewis Hamilton attributes his Q1 exit at the Chinese Grand Prix to a setup gamble that backfired, but promised a fighting drive from 18th on the grid.
The Mercedes driver finished second in the Sprint on Saturday morning after leading the first part of that race, having qualified on the front row in wet conditions on Friday. However, the grand prix’s qualifying session was dry and Hamilton dropped out after going wide at the penultimate corner, admitting he shouldn’t be so low on the grid.
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“I should have got through easy, it was my mistake,” Hamilton said. “I just struggled to stop the car in Turn 14 — I just kept locking. Maybe needed one more lap.
“Just struggled, I made massive changes coming into this qualifying. It wasn’t too bad in some places, but I struggled, I couldn’t get the rear to stop in Turn 14, so… it is what it is. I’ll have fun from back there.”
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Hamilton says the setup changes he made still didn’t give him the performance he was hoping for, meaning he’s keen for a wet race on Sunday to try and make more progress.
“This morning George [Russell] and I had very similar cars but then this afternoon, we just switched, trying to experiment still with the car, so I went one way, a long way, and he went the other way, just to see if we can find anything. That’s what we need to do at the moment. But, didn’t work.
“I’ll give it my best shot. 18th is pretty bad. When I was making the setup changes, I was like, ‘It can’t get any worse, surely’ and it did! But s**t happens.
“The car is massively different because we changed a lot, but I’m hoping tomorrow’s going to be a bit better. I hope it rains tomorrow now, I need the rain! So the rain dance, I need everyone to do it!”
Max Verstappen claimed Red Bull Racing’s 100th Formula 1 pole position with a confident performance in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix. Verstappen set two laps quick enough for pole position, his final time of 1m 33.660s getting him 0.322s …
Max Verstappen claimed Red Bull Racing’s 100th Formula 1 pole position with a confident performance in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Verstappen set two laps quick enough for pole position, his final time of 1m 33.660s getting him 0.322s ahead of teammate Sergio Perez.
The Dutchman, who won the year’s first sprint earlier in the day, said the team had managed to improve the car since the short race.
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“I think the sprint race gave us a few more ideas for the car, and I think the car worked event better for qualifying,” he said. “I’m definitely very happy with how qualifying went.
“The car was really nice to drive. That final lap was pretty decent.”
Perez was almost eliminated in Q1 after losing his first lap to traffic. Falling out of sequence left him searching for rhythm for the rest of the session, but the Mexican came good with his final lap to secure a front row lockout for the team.
“It was very intense,” he said. “It was just a very messy start to qualifying.
“Unfortunately in the end it was just not enough to get Max, but overall it’s a tremendous team result, because the track ahs changed a lot and we changed the car a lot to adapt to the conditions.”
Fernando qualified third for Aston Martin, banishing the memories of his sprint DNF from earlier in the day.
The Spaniard made a mistake in the first two corners of his final flying lap and considered abandoning the time, but a strong last two sectors was enough to make up for the mistake, putting him just 0.166s behind Perez.
“We didn’t give up,” he said. “We kept pushing all through the lap and we set a good time.
“I think the car improved since [the sprint] this morning. We made a few set-up changes. Let’s see tomorrow if we can transfer that.”
Alonso’s last-gasp effort got him ahead of the closely matched McLaren teammates by just 0.017s.
Sprint polesitter Lando Norris headed Oscar Piastri in fourth and fifth, the duo split by 0.108s.
Ferrari teammates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz followed just 0.016s adrift, the Monegasque ahead of the Spaniard by only 0.008s. Seventh was a commendable turnaround for Sainz, who crashed just after halfway through Q2
The Australian Grand Prix winner stepped onto the gravel exiting the final corner, spinning his Ferrari backwards and over the front straight, where it heavily whacked the outside wall with both left-hand wheels.
The car stalled with its front wing broken and triggered a red flag, but the Spaniard used the car’s hybrid electronics to restart the motor and continue to pit lane, from where he was able to resume the session.
George Russell qualified eighth as the slowest frontrunner in Q3, his Mercedes 0.773s off the pace.
It was still a significantly better return than teammate Lewis Hamilton managed, the six-time Chinese Grand Prix winner eliminated a lowly 18th. Hamilton’s shock Q1 elimination stemmed from a single mistake at the final hairpin, where he got on the brakes too late and sailed wide of the apex.
The innocuous-looking error cost him 0.6s to teammate Russell in the final sector, which was more than enough to see him knocked out at the first hurdle for the first time since the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Nico Hulkenberg performed strongly for Haas to qualify ninth, though the German will be investigated after the session for jostling for position at the end of the pit lane in the moments before the starts of Q1.
Valtteri Bottas completed the top 10, the Finn getting Sauber into Q3 for the first time this season after knocking Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll out in Q2 in 11th by 0.069s.
Daniel Ricciardo qualified 12th for RB ahead of Esteban Ocon in the sole updated Alpine in 13th.
Alex Albon will line up 14th for Williams ahead of Pierre Gasly in 15th.
Home hero Zhou Guanyu committed a small lock-up at the final hairpin that left him 0.048s short of a spot in Q2, leaving him 16th on the grid ahead of Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and the disappointed Hamilton.
Yuki Tsunoda’s difficult weekend continued with 19th on the grid, the Japanese driver having suffered with a stuck DRS early in the session and putting together a messy middle sector on his final flying lap.
Logan Sargeant completed the order in 20th after spinning off the road at Turn 9 on his last lap.
