I watched the race at home, before I headed back to the hospital. I had been looking forward to a colorful and action-packed race. It turned out an eventful race, but not in a way I had hoped for.
2019 Chinese GP marked the 1000th race in the F1 history. Who would get the honor to win it? The lights out was a thrilling moment. Pole-sitter Bottas suffered from wheel spin, which was caused by the white line on the start straight, and teammate Hamilton stormed past Valtteri. Ferrari debutant Leclerc had an advantage over his teammate, going into tricky Turn 1, and snatched P3. Verstappen in his RB15 in P5 was right at Sebastian's tail. The top drivers had a clean start, but unfortunately the start wasn't crash-free in the midfield. Toro Rosso's Kvyat first hit McLaren's Norris, which led into contact between the McLaren teammates. All three were able to continue the race. Virtual safety car was deployed, as there was some debris on the track.
After the start Kimi was in P12. The Iceman's performance seemed extremely competitive against the Haas drivers. First Kimi hunted down Magnussen, and made a flawless overtaking move on the Dane. A couple of laps later the Iceman attacked Haas teammate Grosjean, with no difficulty to overtake the Frenchman. Kimi had now moved 10th, with valuable points in his sight.
Meanwhile, Sebastian seemed irritated after losing the third place to his young teammate. The teammates were already within DRS distance, and Sebastian told on the team radio, that he was faster than Leclerc. The Monegasque was told on the team radio to push and go faster, but Sebastian continued following his teammate closely. On lap 11 we heard a team order from Ferrari; Leclerc was told to let Sebastian past. Charles had no option but to obey the team order. Sebastian moved past, snatching back his third place. However, Sebastian didn't manage to pull away from his teammate. The German was under pressure, and he locked up his front tyres a couple of times, trying desperately to pull away from his hungry teammate.
Verstappen opened the pit stop roulette on lap 18, pitting for a fresh set of hard tyres. The Dutchman re-joined the track in P8. Ferrari had to react to Verstappen's strategy, so the Red Team called Sebastian in. The German switched to the white-walled hard tyres, re-joining the track ahead of Verstappen. But the flying Dutchman immediately smelled Sebastian's blood and was like a rattle snake, ready to attack any moment. Max left his braking unbelievably late, and dived alongside Sebastian! For a short moment it seemed, as if Max had been able to get past, but this time Sebastian controlled his nerves and kept his head cool. The irritated German managed to stay ahead of Max, just barely.
Towards the halfway point of the race, Bottas and Hamilton pitted on the sequential laps, also for a fresh set of hard Pirellis. Hamilton maintained his lead, with his teammate second. Leclerc lost the fourth place to Verstappen during his pit stop, as the Red Bull pilot benefited from the undercut. This meant, that Ferrari's team order proved extremely costly for Leclerc, who had lost two positions compared to the opening lap. Kimi dropped down to P11 during his pit stop, and both Haas drivers managed to get ahead of the Iceman. This wasn't a problem for Kimi, who made two more glorious overtakes!
On lap 30 Hamilton was leading the race, with a safe 3-second gap to his Finnish teammate. Sebastian in P3 proved absolutely toothless against the Silver Arrows, and he was already 11 seconds down on the race leader. Verstappen in P4 was no threat for Sebastian, and Leclerc's chances to challenge Verstappen didn't seem very realistic, either.
Verstappen opened also the second round of pit stops. The Dutchman pitted on lap 35, this time for a fresh set of medium Pirellis. Once again, the Red Team had to react, and Sebastian was called in right away. The German managed to stay ahead of Max, with a significant 8-second margin. A lap later Mercedes called both drivers in for a double pit stop, with Hamilton first. The Mercedes aces, too opted for the yellow-marked medium rubber. Hamilton re-joined the track in the lead, but teammate Bottas re-joined the track right behind Leclerc in P3. Valtteri's pace on the fresh tyres was much more competitive, but Leclerc had been told to slow the Finn down as much as he could. Bottas lost valuable time fighting behind the Monegasque. Finally Valtteri managed to squeeze past Leclerc on the long straight.
Leclerc was struggling on his out-worn hard tyres, and Sebastian swept past his teammate on lap 43. Charles pitted right away, also for a fresh set of medium rubber. He re-joined the track in P5. With ten laps to go, the gaps between the top five were quite solid, with no on-track battles going on. Kimi in P9, on the other hand, was right at Perez's tail, trying to find a chance for an overtaking move. At this point it seemed, as if P7 had been within Kimi's grasp, as Renault's Ricciardo in P7 was only a couple of seconds ahead of Perez.
With only three laps to go, the fastest lap time was under Sebastian's belt. However, Red Bull's Gasly pitted from P6 for a fresh set of red-marked soft compound, with the intention to set the fastest lap time at the end. And unfortunately the Frenchman deprived Sebastian of the fastest lap time, which is worth an extra point! Hamilton drove to the chequered flag as the race winner, with Bottas making it already the third 1-2 for Mercedes this season. This is quite a historic statistic detail, as three 1-2s for the same team at the beginning of the season was last achieved by Williams in 1992! The 1000th Grand Prix of the F1 history marked the 75th win for the reigning world champion. Sebastian completed the podium, with Verstappen fourth and Leclerc fifth. Gasly finished the race sixth, in spite of his second pit stop. Ricciardo finally managed to deliver at the wheel of Renault, bringing his car to the chequered flag in impressive P7. Perez managed to keep the Iceman behind him in the end, scoring three valuable points for Racing Point. Toro Rosso's Albon scored the last point, which was an excellent result from the Thai driver, as he had been forced to start to the race from the pit lane.
With this result, Hamilton snatched the championship lead from his teammate by six points. Verstappen has 39 points to Hamilton's 68. Sebastian moved fourth in the standings, with a 2-point gap to Verstappen and only one-point gap to his teammate. Mercedes are in a class of their own in the constructors' championship standings, as they have massive 130 points to the Red Team's 73. Behind Red Bull (3rd in the standings) the battle is extremely tight. Renault and Alfa Romeo Racing share the joint 4th place with 12 points.
Sebastian made it on the podium thanks to the team orders today. I'm sure this isn't the way he wants to succeed and beat his teammate. He can do better than that! The harmony has shaken within the team, which may have many consequences throughout the season. Personally, I don't think the team orders is the right solution at the beginning of the season. The drivers should be free to race, and whoever of the drivers has more points towards the end of the season, should then be promoted "the number one driver". You have to earn the status on track. I'm quite sure that deep down in his heart Sebastian isn't satisfied with today's result.
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