Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest lap of the race for the second time this year on his way to victory in the Chinese Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver’s best time was two-thirds of a second quicker than any of his rivals from other teams managed.Mercedes surprised Ferrari during the race by getting Valtteri Bottas ahead of Sebastian Vettel during their pit stops. The move was aided by Bottas having the fastest complete pit stop of the race, almost a full second faster than Vettel’s.
McLaren’s pit stops were on the slow side, which suggests more care was being taken after the unsafe release of Stoffel Vandoorne’s car in practice. Fernando Alonso had the slowest complete pit stop of the race, aside from Pierre Gasly’s, in which he served a 10-second penalty.
However Alonso ended the race having gained the most places of any driver, six. Lance Stroll did the best first lap, also gaining six places, but by the end of the race he had lost two of them.
Explore the Chinese Grand Prix in depth with the interactive charts below.
NB. Charts do not reflect post-race time penalties.
2018 Chinese Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
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2018 Chinese Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
Position change
Driver | Start position | Lap one position change | Race position change |
---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | 4 | -1 | 0 |
Valtteri Bottas | 3 | 1 | 1 |
Sebastian Vettel | 1 | 0 | -7 |
Kimi Raikkonen | 2 | -2 | -1 |
Daniel Ricciardo | 6 | 0 | 5 |
Max Verstappen | 5 | 2 | 0 |
Sergio Perez | 8 | -6 | -4 |
Esteban Ocon | 12 | -1 | 1 |
Lance Stroll | 18 | 6 | 4 |
Sergey Sirotkin | 16 | 1 | 1 |
Nico Hulkenberg | 7 | 0 | 1 |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | 9 | 1 | 0 |
Pierre Gasly | 17 | -2 | -1 |
Brendon Hartley | 15 | -2 | -5 |
Romain Grosjean | 10 | 1 | -7 |
Kevin Magnussen | 11 | 1 | 1 |
Fernando Alonso | 13 | 2 | 6 |
Stoffel Vandoorne | 14 | -2 | 1 |
Marcus Ericsson | 20 | 0 | 4 |
Charles Leclerc | 19 | 1 | 0 |
2018 Chinese Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2018 Chinese Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’35.785 | 55 | |
2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’36.206 | 0.421 | 50 |
3 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’36.456 | 0.671 | 48 |
4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’36.878 | 1.093 | 20 |
5 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’36.881 | 1.096 | 56 |
6 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’36.987 | 1.202 | 50 |
7 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’37.234 | 1.449 | 56 |
8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’37.410 | 1.625 | 51 |
9 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’37.479 | 1.694 | 24 |
10 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’37.673 | 1.888 | 54 |
11 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’37.754 | 1.969 | 54 |
12 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’37.985 | 2.200 | 47 |
13 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’38.137 | 2.352 | 54 |
14 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’38.152 | 2.367 | 54 |
15 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’38.367 | 2.582 | 54 |
16 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’38.386 | 2.601 | 52 |
17 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’38.500 | 2.715 | 54 |
18 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’38.624 | 2.839 | 47 |
19 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’38.808 | 3.023 | 23 |
20 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’39.376 | 3.591 | 50 |
2018 Chinese Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
---|---|---|---|
Daniel Ricciardo | Ultra soft (17) | Medium (14) | Soft (25) |
Valtteri Bottas | Soft (19) | Medium (37) | |
Kimi Raikkonen | Soft (27) | Medium (29) | |
Lewis Hamilton | Soft (18) | Medium (38) | |
Max Verstappen | Ultra soft (17) | Medium (14) | Soft (25) |
Nico Hulkenberg | Ultra soft (13) | Medium (18) | Soft (25) |
Fernando Alonso | Soft (29) | Medium (27) | |
Sebastian Vettel | Soft (20) | Medium (36) | |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ultra soft (12) | Medium (19) | Soft (25) |
Kevin Magnussen | Soft (24) | Medium (32) | |
Esteban Ocon | Soft (11) | Soft (20) | Ultra soft (25) |
Sergio Perez | Ultra soft (12) | Soft (20) | Soft (24) |
Stoffel Vandoorne | Soft (22) | Medium (34) | |
Lance Stroll | Soft (23) | Medium (33) | |
Sergey Sirotkin | Soft (28) | Medium (5) | Soft (23) |
Marcus Ericsson | Soft (29) | Medium (27) | |
Romain Grosjean | Ultra soft (16) | Medium (30) | Ultra soft (10) |
Pierre Gasly | Medium (20) | Soft (11) | Ultra soft (25) |
Charles Leclerc | Soft (21) | Medium (35) | |
Brendon Hartley | Ultra soft (10) | Medium (20) | Soft (21) |
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2018 Chinese Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 22.097 | 19 | |
2 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 22.334 | 0.237 | 32 |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 22.464 | 0.367 | 18 |
4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 22.596 | 0.499 | 31 |
5 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 22.637 | 0.540 | 31 |
6 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 22.661 | 0.564 | 23 |
7 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 22.691 | 0.594 | 31 |
8 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 22.715 | 0.618 | 17 |
9 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 22.723 | 0.626 | 33 |
10 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 22.785 | 0.688 | 29 |
11 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 22.856 | 0.759 | 12 |
12 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 22.913 | 0.816 | 27 |
13 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 22.973 | 0.876 | 24 |
14 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 22.981 | 0.884 | 16 |
15 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 23.009 | 0.912 | 20 |
16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 23.042 | 0.945 | 17 |
17 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 23.117 | 1.020 | 31 |
18 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 23.172 | 1.075 | 10 |
19 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 23.281 | 1.184 | 11 |
20 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 23.297 | 1.200 | 31 |
21 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 23.392 | 1.295 | 21 |
22 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 23.654 | 1.557 | 13 |
23 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 23.716 | 1.619 | 28 |
24 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 23.730 | 1.633 | 22 |
25 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 23.735 | 1.638 | 46 |
26 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 23.935 | 1.838 | 12 |
27 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 23.950 | 1.853 | 20 |
28 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 24.070 | 1.973 | 30 |
29 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 24.110 | 2.013 | 29 |
30 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 34.650 | 12.553 | 31 |
2018 Chinese Grand Prix
- Top ten pictures from the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix
- Ricciardo denies Bottas a badly-needed win
- 2018 Chinese Grand Prix Star Performers
- Hamilton breaks Raikkonen’s record for consecutive points finishes
- Paddock Diary: Chinese Grand Prix day four
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
15th April 2018, 17:07
Lap, slap times – who cares about lap times when you’ve watched the most iconic race of all times – and no I’m not talking about Daniel’s incredible but another driver undoing a team’s mistake and beating Vettel, Max, Ferrari all in 1 lap.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
15th April 2018, 19:37
I’m kidding, of course – this page is fantastic in case people actually suspect that I’m saying it’s not. It’s just that after watching such a crazy race at the end of the race when everything looked like Vettel would get a 3rd consecutive victory and then seeing everything turn on its head with every battle we wanted to see materialize, lap times won’t tell the story anywhere the same way that the drivers on the track did.