2017 Chinese GP Post-Race Stats

Second race of the season over, and a second winner of the season and a bit of rain before the race to spice things up a bit.

Lewis Hamilton started the race from pole position, led the entire race and set the fastest lap of the race, so it was a pretty good weekend for him I’d say… Sebastian Vettel switched to slick tyres during the VSC period, which most likely would have given him the race lead had Antonio Giovinazzi not crashed shortly after, bringing out the full safety car and putting Vettel behind his teammate and the Red Bulls.

Max Verstappen dropped out in Q1 due to a combination of engine issues and Giovinazzi’s qualifying crash, starting down in 16^th place after a few penalties for other drivers. Thanks to the weather Verstappen was overtaking for fun and up to second place before lap 15, later being passed by Vettel after a lock up and finishing in third place.

While everyone was raving about Verstappen’s success in China, I was more impressed with Carlos Sainz. He was the only driver starting the race on slick tyres, while he got a bit lucky with the safety car bringing him closer and everyone pitting he was consistently the third fastest man on track after everyone had pitted for slicks. In a Toro Rosso, lapping faster than Ferraris? Faster than Bottas? That’s impressive.

Max Verstappen’s podium was the 136^th Red Bull podium and 100^th podium race, leading for me to correct the Red Bull Twitter account with their own statistic, as you do!

I can count 136 podiums… It's the 100th race you've had a podium at! https://t.co/9j7YMtHPDI

— Jack Elleker/F1StatMan (@F1StatMan) April 9, 2017