Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, Shanghai International Circuit, 2018

2018 Chinese Grand Prix championship points

2018 Chinese Grand Prix

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2018 Chinese Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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28 comments on “2018 Chinese Grand Prix championship points”

  1. Everyone can pack up now. Mercedes is one in the constructors again. Things are back to normal.

    In all seriousness. This will probably (80%) be it for the first half of the season. Haas will come back and McLaren will drop, and one RBR will have one on Bottas, but for the rest it looks set.

  2. Alonso still 6th in the championship with the 7th best car. Mr. consistent eh?

    1. 22 points in 3 races – already 5 more than in last year’s 20 races.

    2. Yes Alonso is 6th on equal points with Hulkenburg which makes him the lead points scorer driving a Renault engine. So not only is Mclaren the lead Renault powered car they also have more than double the points of the Honda powered Torro Rosso’s. And yet they are still getting major flack on this forum for how badly they are performing. Makes me wonder what they have got to do to get some recognition for the smart move to change from Honda to Renault. It must have really made Alonso’s day when he overtook Vettel.

      1. SparkyAMG (@)
        15th April 2018, 17:18

        @angie casually ignoring the fact that Red Bull and Ricciardo are both ahead of McLaren and Alonso.

        1. Not ignoring it at all. You must allow us ladies to have the odd blonde moment. I keep thinking that the Red Bull engine is a Tag and keep forgetting that it is actually a Renault. If you give me enough time, I will learn.

  3. All fair game now, Vettel lucked out a win in Melbourne, Lewis lucked out a lead in Shanghai. The championship is on!

    1. What fair game are you talking about?! VET/Ferrari didn’t destroy anybody’s race to get that win! It was Mercedes’ fault, so if there’s somebody HAM has to talk about losing the win… it’s inside his own team. It’s like VET/Ferrari would blame VER too for messing up their own strategy and losing P1 to BOT. Then, what HAM lead are you talking about?! HAM was nowhere near the lead this whole GP. Apart from VER moment, nobody “robbed” him of anything this race. He was worse than VET in AUS. VET at least managed to be P3 ahead of BOT, HAM was P4 all weekend long.

      1. It was Mercedes’ fault

        what?

        It’s like VET/Ferrari would blame VER too for messing up their own strategy

        of course it’s not for that

  4. Look at Max’s postion… The guy is so impatient, his driving this season has been SHAMBOLIC, what a waste of natural ability. Kudos to my guys Hulkenberg and Alonso, Bottas beating Hamilton two weekends in a row too.

  5. Time to hear about Honda still not improving for few weeks until we get into next Friday practice when it changes into it’s all McLaren fault and their chassis is bad again…

    1. Currently Toro Rosso – Honda are 6th in the Constructors’ Championship, so there’s 4 teams behind them and there’s 18 races to go.

      1. @drycrust Just found it weird that some people can’t accept that both McLaren and Honda improved after their divorce.

  6. The only reason the championship isn’t over by now is Mad Max.

  7. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
    15th April 2018, 9:26

    Well, I think 5 points between hamilton and Bottas is a fairly accurate statistic to how far well they have done performed. Both have now basically missed out on a win. Hamilton may have had a penalty last race, but he did qualify behind Bottas and had the 2 Red Bulls and 1 Ferrari retire infront of him. So that helped him get to around where he quite likely will have finished if he had started in 4th. I do think there luck has been similar, and Bottas just being 5 points behind given how bad he was in Australia is a great achievment. Even after a bad start, I think he’s made up for that with Championchip points. If it wasn’t for the Gasly’s mistake, I think there could well be tied in points. Given the level of critisism Bottas has been getting, I think people should stop now. A highly rated driver (Verstappen) is having a dreadful season compared to him.

  8. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
    15th April 2018, 9:27

    Sainz is really underwhelming so far. He has been totally overshadowed by Hulkenberg

    1. @miltosgreekfan
      I wonder if that has anything to do with the changes in regulations regarding driver weights. I can’t remember exactly what the changes were, but I remember people saying that Hulk was always at a disadvantage because of his weight, and that regulations this year were going to add anywhere between a tenth or two to his lap pace. I’ve been really impressed with him so far. I think it could be the reason that Sainz is actually looking weaker than expected this year.
      I think the Hulk, Alonso and Ricciardo have been the drivers of the season so far.

      1. @todfod Have those regulations been applied for 2018 or are they proposed for 2019? Whatever has happened, it is true that Hulkenberg has been mega this season & Sainz hasnt been nowhere near good as Hulkster. Their difference was obvious today. Hulkenberg was able to pass slower cars with ease after his stop, while Sainz lost important time stucked behind Gasly.
        Sainz and Grosjean need to raise their game

        1. … And Vandoorne too.

    2. @miltosgreekfan
      Hulk is a bloody good driver too. He has shown countless times what he’s capable of in midfield cars. To be honest not surprised that Sainz was overshadowed by him.

      1. @tifoso1989 Hulk is in great shape & in his career peak as it seems, but i expected Sainz to be closer & beat him occasionaly. Lets se what Sainz can do in the next 2-3 races.

    3. Hulk has been great, don’t think Sainz has been that bad though, he’s just not performed well in q3 and has had poor first laps. Still think it will be very close between them at the end of the season. Who knows, if Sainz steps up his game there could be a Red Bull seat up for grabs… And not Ricciardo’s at this rate. I would also make Hulkenberg a front-runner for Kimi’s seat, although maybe just behind Perez.

      1. Its 22-3 in points, 3-0 in qualy & their qualy gaps have been big… I honeslty expected them much closer, especially since Sainz spend a part of last sesson in Renault.

  9. So Ric may be 3rd in the championship ahead of Bot if he hadn’t DNF’d last race……interesting eh.

  10. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
    15th April 2018, 13:06

    Well, I think the highest Ricciardo will have managed was probably 3rd last race. That will have been 15 points. And if Verstappen hadn’t spun this race and there wasn’t any safety car, he probably will have been 5th or 6th. So at leased 15 points less than he got. So I think the luck he had this race has quite possibly made up for his misfortune last race. And if without the safety car this race, even if he hasn’t retired last race, he would still be behind Bottas.

  11. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
    15th April 2018, 13:33

    Some interesting team mate battles again this weekend.

    Overall this year, there have been several team mates the opposite way round to what many seemed to expect.

    Sianz is clearly below Hulkenberg. I expected Hulkenberg to be better, but not by this much. Others won’t like me saying this, I think Sainz is one of the most over rated on the grid. I think he has a big weakness in qualifying. Perhaps this is a slightly unfair way of comparing things. But Kvyat was basically as good as him in terms of qualifying. It was something like the 2nd smallest average gap in qualifying last year. And Kvyat was heavily beaten in this area by Ricciardo. Verstappen has improved his pace significently since 2015 and he now looks quicker than Ricciardo in that area a lot of the time. I think Ricciardo and Verstappen will be a huge amount better than Sainz. Also, Sainz was responsible for more retirements than any other driver last year. And this year, he’s been quite a bit behind Hulkenberg.

    Ericsson got so heavily critisized over the last 2 years. I was pretty confident that he would overall outperform his team mate this year. Especially in the first part of the season. When many saw me predicting this, several thought that Ericsson was so bad that even a rookie couldn’t bet him. Ericsson qualified better if the first 2 races and had a much better start in both 2. Australia, he had to retire. But in bahrain, that was a truly excellent performance. Ericsson did get held up by his team mate spinning in Q1 this weekend. But he didn’t back off enough. He got a penalty and was clearly his own fault. he also failed to improve his time. Even the first stint of the race, Leclerc was clearly better. But then later on, Leclerc spun and the end result was Ericsson beating him by 20 seconds. That wasn’t a good race for Ericsson, but I think Leclerc is rather over rated. I expected him to be close. I myself don’t rate Ericsson highly, I just don’t think he’s anything like as bad as the majority think he is.

    Ricciardo and Verstappen. I think Verstappen is faster over 1 lap. But as I said last year, I think it is very obvious Ricciardo is the better racer. No matter how risky his moves are, they virtually never go wrong. Verstappen had multiple contacts last year, 2 he was very lucky not to get a puncture, but they both did work. Now he is realising that trying this hard often isn’t the way to go. Sorry to say this, But Verstappen is having a dreadful season. even though plenty of his driving is quick as well as having some good overtakes, he has ended up ruining his chances in all 3 races this year. Ricciardo so far has been way better in terms of performing when it matters. I personally expect Ricciardo will manage to beat Verstappen again in the championship.

    Magnussen and Grosjean. Now I did not expect this. I thought Magnusen was really bad in 2016 other than in Russia. I thought he had loads of scruffy races the following year too. I thought Grosjean was bad a lot of to time too but clearly a level ahead most of the time. That has changed. Magnussen looked better than Grosjean in Australia, Although Grosjean certainly wasn’t far off behind him. The following race, Grosjean really struggled and Magnussen clearly got the better of him. And this race, neither really impressed but Grosjean was slower again. I’ve changed my view on Magnussen. Now the car is better, he seems much better as a driver too.

    It is also interesting with Bottas and Hamilton. I honestly think their luck is even now. Both lost out to a win which wasn’t their fault. Hamilton may have had a penalty in Bahrain, but all he had to do was overtake the cars that were significantly slower than his. The 2 Red Bulls and a Ferari had to retire. If he had been 4th to start with, he may have been able to challenge Bottas, but it was clear Bottas wasn’t pushing. Bottas is good at defending and it is very hard to overtake the same car. I think unless there were team orders, bottas will have beaten Hamilton. And this is the reason why I think the points they both have fairly accurately shows how far apart they are. Despite Bottas’s weak performance in the first race, now Hamilton has been out qualified by him twice. I think Both Bottas and Hamilton have had one weak weekend and one pretty similar. So I think 5 points behind Hamilton isn’t bad if I’m honest.

    1. Through the past 3 years Sainz has been praised for his talents but not really for his actual racing in F1 (only in sporadic and very few moments, most noticeably his P4 in the 2017 Singapore GP) and that might have affected his racecraft and his development as a F1 driver, but also beacuse he knows he is more less number one to take over the Red Bull from Ricciardo. I think Sainz is getting too complacent with his current status.

  12. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    15th April 2018, 18:27

    Absolute magic – Mercedes 1 point ahead of Ferrari while Vettel is coasting to 3rd victory and Lewis within 9 points (and possibly ahead, Kimi cost him a 3 points and Vettel was lucky to get away without more severe damage or a puncture).

    Also kept Bottas behind him in the WCC.

    Magisterial Lewis!!! He pulled a magical trick that makes Harry Houdini look like an amateur.

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