Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, Shanghai International Circuit, 2018

2018 Chinese Grand Prix race result

2018 Chinese Grand Prix

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Pos#DriverCarLapsTime/gapDifferenceReason
13Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer561hr 35m 36.380s
277Valtteri BottasMercedes568.8948.894
37Kimi RaikkonenFerrari569.6370.743
444Lewis HamiltonMercedes5616.9857.348
533Max Verstappen*Red Bull-TAG Heuer5620.4363.451
627Nico HulkenbergRenault5621.0520.616
714Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Renault5630.6399.587
85Sebastian VettelFerrari5635.2864.647
955Carlos Sainz JnrRenault5635.7630.477
1020Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari5639.5943.831
1131Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes5644.0504.456
1211Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes5644.7250.675
132Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Renault5649.3734.648
1418Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes5655.4906.117
1535Sergey SirotkinWilliams-Mercedes5658.2412.751
169Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari5662.6044.363
178Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari5665.2962.692
1810Pierre Gasly**Toro Rosso-Honda5666.3301.034
1916Charles LeclercSauber-Ferrari5682.57516.245
2028Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Honda515 laps5 laps

*10-second time penalty for collision with Sebastian Vettel
**10-second time penalty for collision with Brendon Hartley

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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57 comments on “2018 Chinese Grand Prix race result”

  1. Hamilton gets a free 10 points on Vettel, not deserved I’d say.

    1. So Hamilton orchestrated both Verstappen’s over ambitious mistakes?

      1. @psynrg How is that even remotely what I said? Vettel would’ve finished ahead in most likely fourth position with Hamilton fifth. I did not expect Kimi to get ahead of either of them.

        It’s just foolish Verstappen ruined what was a good race from Vettel. Now Vettel scored 4 points and Hamilton 12 whilst most likely it would’ve been Vettel scoring 12 and Hamilton either 10 or 8.

      2. @psynrg I don’t think that’s what @flatsix meant by that. Nothing to say that it was Hamilton’s fault at all, it’s just frustrating that that’s the outcome (it isn’t unreasonable to feel that way)

    2. It’s very frustrating

    3. It’s racing, it takes two to tango and if Vettel wanted to concede the place and put his Championship position ahead of his position in the race he could have just as well. The Red Bull was faster so I don’t see too much undeserved about the way he lost that fight to be honest.

      1. @skipgamer then you don’t know a lot about racing. Verstappen just trows his car into Vettel… That is not racing. Verstappen could have easily waited 1 more corner for a move that would stick instead of ramming people of the road.
        He is one of the least intelligent drivers out there. Without his stupid overtaking moves, that are not overtaking moves, he would have much more points. You don’t need to destroy other people their race to win the race…

      2. @skipgamer That Hamilton gains points on Vettel today is underserved. That Vettel perhaps should’ve let Verstappen through is something I’d agree but how much racers have done that in the past,…

        1. @flatsix have you seen the actual overtake? There was a huge amount of space next to Vettel. Verstappen just did a move that would never stick. Vettel was not even blocking him. So what could Vettel have done to prevent the Verstappen crazyness? Make his car dissappear?

          1. @niedle I didn’t necessarily mean at that moment in time, but earlier or afterwards. It was fairly obvious he’d get past at some point and Vettel his race is against Hamilton, not Verstappen. But again, I can’t think of any example where a racer let another one through for the sake of the championship this early in the season.

          2. yea the inside door or completely and safely open.. and yet we all saw what happend.. they need to call this kid and calm him down

        2. @flatsix Not sure the relevance of the point you’re making about “undeserved” a lot happened in this race and to be honest i had no clue who was going to end up on the top set. Stop hating on HAM, that particular spin with VET and VER could’ve easily affected HAM worse but he only lost the one place.

          There’s a lot more worth while discussion to be had…

          1. @icarby “Hating”, how in the world am I hating on Hamilton, hating is just the word people use when they can’t accept criticism. Vettel was miles ahead of Hamilton all weekend, and we can safely assume the championship will go between them. So sure it’s racing, but that doesn’t mean Hamilton deserved to open the gap to Vettel today, as much as others would (and did) argue Vettel didn’t deserve the win in Australia. Didn’t see anyone writing down ‘stop hating on Vettel’ though,…

            that particular spin with VET and VER could’ve easily affected HAM worse but he only lost the one place.

            Well he gained two to begin with, so that’s hardly a sensible sentence,… so guess what, it affected Vettel way harder, he went from P4 to P8.

        3. “That Hamilton gains points on Vettel today is underserved.” wow come back to australia, and vettel deserved all of it… i guess? if ham pitted today, it would be an undeserved win too totally unfair… you ferrari tifosos are amazing in cheering silly wins and booing when loosing in the same fashion…

          1. @mysticus Please read post above. The exact thing you’re accusing me of is what you’re doing for Hamilton, at the same time I’m not at all guilty of glorifying his AUS win.

          2. FlatSix, you did admit that without the VSC in Aus, Vettel would have only come third, and you didn’t seem to find his point haul unfair. Luck ebbs and flows, sure, if you add up all the “unfairness” over a drivers career, you can find some who are genuinely slightly unlucky and some who are slightly lucky, but come on, after Hamilton’s 2016 season you can’t be happy for a measly handful of points that makes the championship closer? Or are you a “fan”atic of Vettel?

          3. @sleepywill For me unfair is something completely different than undeserved. Hamilton deserved to win in Melbourne, in the same way Vettel deserved to finish ahead of Hamilton today. Neither of those instances I classify as unfair. What is unfair is for example that Verstappen finishes ahead of Vettel because the +10 penalty is rubbish. So basically I still stand by my original statement.

            It’s such a shame I cannot write down an opinion without immediately being branded a fanatic. I’m not forcing you to agree nor am I presenting it as a fact,…

          4. @todfod & @phylyp, please read above.

          5. I mean asking you isn’t branding you, so I assume you get told that you are enough that you have a chip on your shoulder about it. There’s probably a reason for that, but I’m going to leave it there, you can lead the horse to water and all.

            Back on topic, and sidestepping the pointless semantics argument, I completely understand that you feel that Max didn’t deserve to beat Vettel, but that’s not what you opened with. You said Hamilton didn’t deserve to score 10 more points than Vettel, that is very, very different. Hamilton may not have deserved 4th today, but he didn’t deserve to finish lower either. Vettel didn’t deserve to finish 8th today, but he didn’t deserve to finish higher either – he burnt his own tyres out after losing 5 seconds or so by being too impetuous to get restarted. While the spin caused the tyre burnout, it was in the end the tyre burnout that meant he couldn’t stay within the penalty range of Max, or keep Alonso behind him – that wasn’t the spin, that was the burnout.

          6. @flatsix

            Don’t agree with your reasoning at all. Hamilton lost points to Vettel in Melbourne due to circumstances out of his control, and Vettel lost points to Hamilton today due to circumstances out of his control. Seems pretty even to me. Considering that the points lost to each other in both races was pretty even as well. That’s just racing.

          7. @todfod Again, that is exactly what I’m saying. That’s racing and that sometimes means people get points they didn’t deserve on merit. However, that in itself isn’t unfair.

            @sleepywill I wasn’t talking just about you, above I get the same branding. I don’t have a chip on my shoulder about it, it annoys me on several forums. And I hate it in both ways, you cannot make a comment about a driver without someone else right away coming in you’re a hater of that particular driver. I’ve been called a both a Hamilton and Vettel fanatic for saying something about the other. It’s as if saying something about one immediately implies you hate the other.

            Regarding the topic, I was just trying to clarify to you what I see as unfair. Which you brought into the discussion. After reading your answer I feel like you didn’t read my comment at all, or at least very much didn’t understand it. On pace Vettel would’ve finished ahead of Hamilton today and scored more points towards the championship, that is what both deserved. That it didn’t happen is just racing, and neither of it is unfair. To illustrate that I provide you with an example of what I do think is unfair, the fact Verstappen got away with a 10 second penalty and finished ahead of Vettel. That Vettel again loses a place to Alonso isn’t unfair, that’s what in your logic is deserved as he turned his car with a quite aggressive burn out.

          8. @flatsix, i say “Hating” because of all the things to open up with on a very entertaining race was that
            “…Hamilton gets a free 10 points on Vettel, not deserved I’d say…”

            Neither of these two drivers were on the podium so the focus should’ve been at least there; you’re probably right that the season will be between these two but today wasn’t about them. Then to say it was undeserved points claimed back to me made even less sense, things are bound to happen in races which don’t necessarily boil down to being deserved or undeserved. Yes Vet was ahead this weekend, pole position, perfect package all looking good, but due to circumstances outside of his control it all was binned! Pretty similar to what has happened to practically all the drivers in their careers at one point or another. Hamilton engine failures, Riccardo engine failure in the last race, could go on and on.

            Plus when i spoke about the spin, at the time, Ham was in front of Rai, but lost a place when he had to take avoiding action, but crucially got in front of Vet. I was talking of that particular moment rather than the overall standings.

    4. Thats racing! Vettel had an ‘undeserved’ win in Australia getting lucky with the safety car. They tend to even out over the season

    5. Isn’t it 8 points? Hamitlon gets 12 for 4th and Vettel 4 for 8th?

    6. Well, that’s the unpredictable nature of racing – people who are not at fault get punished (by losing points), and other people benefit.

      Hamilton and Vettel have both been racing long enough that they’ll probably have roughly similar number of instances where each of them benefited from good/ill luck like this, and equally where they lost out.

    7. @flatsix

      I think it works itself out since Vettel didn’t deserve those extra 10 points in Melbourne either.

    8. Welcome to motoracing @flatsix

  2. Hope Max finally learns not to be over agressive for no reason. Threw away a win an redbull 1-2..

    1. I dont think he will learn anything he is just too young and guess red mist will takeover everytime things go wrong.

      Also it seems like everyone loves to torpedo that petulant child of team red. Alonso also did it towards the end of race.

    2. @maxv – ouch, your username might slightly annoy you today :-)

      For now, I think RBR view Ricciardo as the safe pair of hands, reliable and quick. And Max is a bit of that wildcard, who can bring in spectacular results, and spectacular failures. If RBR lose Ricciardo (and I predict they will), then they will have to take a hard look at whether Max can be the primary bringer of points, and will probably realize he isn’t and will calm him down.

  3. F1 is predictable huh?

    1. And boring.
      And impossible to overtake.

      Damn, I’m loving the 2018 season so far, @ridzki

    2. Michael Brown (@)
      15th April 2018, 9:22

      “Anything can happen in Formula One, and it usually does.” – Murray Walker

      1. Jonathan Parkin
        15th April 2018, 18:42

        Because it’s happened once doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen again – Murray Walker

  4. No Mercedes win in 2018 yet

    1. @anunaki Indeed, and some were saying the 2018 season was over after day 1 of testing.

  5. Verstappen, the new Maldonado.
    10 seconds was way to soft, shoudl have been at least a drive through.

    1. Okay, maybe comparing him to Maldonado is a little over the top. At least Max is consistently fast.

  6. Were Gasly’s and (particularly) Verstappen’s time penalties accompanied by penalty points?

  7. Breaking news – Verstappen files a copyright claim against the F1 site crash.net’s domain.

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

    A)Ferrari need to start and treat both guys equally. If they start screwing Kimi( who has been very good so far), he’ll give up & they lose an important asset of their championship campaign.
    B) Bottas overshadowed Hamilton the whole weekend and he needs credit for that. His whole race was perhaps his best of his career.Great recovery after Australia
    C) Verstappen needs to change his approach immediately…
    D)Bobby Ricc is the best overtaker F1 has seen in many years!
    E) Alonso shoved Vettel of the track… I reckon he deserved a penalty… Hard racing is fine, but what Alonso did wasnt hard racing…

    1. I agree with most of that, especially with E. They are supposedly allowed to push a driver off on the exit of a corner but not on the apex like that. Had Vettel not avoided Alonso it would’ve been completely Alonso’s fault. That said, it’s good that he did avoid the collision

      1. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
        15th April 2018, 9:29

        Yeah, it was good avoiding skills by Vettel, otherwise he would have left with 0 points…

    2. @miltosgreekfan – very nice points. I would like to see the Alonso/Vettel replays a few times. From the replays that were broadcast, it definitely felt like Alonso was too harsh and Vettel had to go off-track to avoid contact, but I’ve often found myself having formed a wrong first impression, so would like to see replays.

      Bottas – you could hear the disappointment in his voice on the cool-down lap when he spoke to his race engineer. But, damn good performance, he’s definitely the better Mercedes driver for this weekend. And that’s saying something, since the China circuit has been Hamilton’s hunting grounds quite often.

      1. @phylyp Indeed Bottas was very strong in China. In the Williams years he always lost to Massa , under normal circumstances, so i honestly didnt expect him to be that strong here!

      2. You are right Alonso’s move was classic: You have to take avoiding action or else we both crash out of race. Also Alonso does seem to be on a mission not to make it too easy for that team due to treatment meted out to him.

        1. The problem is that, if someone did that move to Alonso himself, he would have created a mayhem with offensive team radios & post race interviews…
          He could have given a bit of room & he would have passed Vettel as well…

  9. Can someone explain why Ferrari didn’t pit Vettel and fitted some ultras after the clash with Verstappen? Must have been faster?

  10. Max realistic and honest as always: He was wrong, he wanted to go forward to fast, he is not doing wel at the moment.

    1. *Too fast

  11. Red Bull mechanics and strategist deserve the trophy as much as Daniel with his fantastic drive. Great team effort, congratulations!

  12. Michael Brown (@)
    15th April 2018, 9:38

    Vettel just can’t get away from those torpedoes!

    1. Well, he does drive a bright red car, which makes bulls liable to charge. @mbr-9

  13. What a disaster for Ferrari.

    I think they lost out to Bottas fair and square.

    But they should have pitted Raikkonen though one lap after Hamilton came in. That was a no-brainer.

    Vettel was just terribly unlucky. Did nothing wrong, drove a great race. Verstappen should have been given a drive through not a 10 second penalty. And then Alonso sticking him on the grass for the hell of it was a real dirty move.

    Last week the Sky commentary were in a tizzy when Verstappen cut across Hamilton’s front wing on the exit of a corner basically blaming Verstappen.

    This week Alonso sticks Vettel on the grass and it’s fair play.

    I thought Hamilton turned his wheel and pushed Verstappen off the circuit at one point too.

    I’m not sold on Ferrari having an advantage over Mercedes. Bottas was able to comfortably maintain a gap on Vettel today despite Bottas being a far inferior driver to Vettel.

    Ferrari really needed to capitalise on Hamilton being down in the dumps and way off the pace today. Not capitalising today might cost them the championship.

    1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      15th April 2018, 14:19

      Well Ferrari were faster than Mercedes by half a second in qualifying. Then also, I think Bottas was really strong today. Hamilton looked much slower than Vettel. I just think Bottas managed to get the best out of his car today and was just better than vettel on his outlap and going in and out of the pits. From what Sky shows, Vettel slowed down to to pit lane speed limit quite a bit before he needed to. Maybe Ferrari were not as far ahead as they were in qualifying, but I do think they had the advantage.

  14. Lumberjackpt81
    15th April 2018, 15:06

    Current championship: Vet/Ham +9.

    Expected championship standings with no (V) SC:

    Australia: Ham 1st/Vet 2nd; Ham +7 (Rai would be screwed dropping to 3rd)
    Bahrein: Vet 1st/Ham 3rd; Vet +3
    China: Vet 2nd/Ham 4th; Vet +9.

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