A tough start to the 2024 season for Alpine got a little better in China, where for the first time this year they’ve managed to lap quicker than one of their rivals.
This has come about partly thanks to the team readying one example of its floor upgrade a race ahead of schedule. The upgrade was given to Esteban Ocon, but he lapped slower than his team mate in yesterday’s sprint race qualifying session.Ocon admitted he needed to make more set-up changes to get the best out of his new parts. Fortunately for him the latest iteration of F1’s sprint event rules allow that and he duly claimed his highest starting position of the season with 13th place on Saturday.
He claimed that place with a lap of 1’35.223 which was just 0.018s faster than Alexander Albon managed. With his team mate Logan Sargeant dropping out in Q1, Alpine have beaten a rival team in qualifying for the first time this year.
Sector times
Albon will surely believe he should be further up the starting order. The gap between his actual lap time and his theoretical best based on his sectors was the largest of any driver. While Ocon got within three-hundredths of his potential best, Albon was over a third of a second off his. The upshot was Williams are the slowest team on pure pace this weekend, not Alpine.
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| P. | # | Driver | S1 | S2 | S3 | Ultimate lap (deficit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | 24.965 (4) | 28.168 (1) | 40.511 (1) | 1’33.644 (+0.016) |
| 2 | 11 | Sergio Perez | 24.91 (1) | 28.29 (4) | 40.66 (2) | 1’33.860 (+0.122) |
| 3 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | 24.925 (2) | 28.308 (5) | 40.783 (6) | 1’34.016 (+0.132) |
| 4 | 4 | Lando Norris | 24.984 (5) | 28.345 (6) | 40.744 (5) | 1’34.073 (+0.092) |
| 5 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | 25.147 (13) | 28.241 (2) | 40.743 (4) | 1’34.131 (+0.158) |
| 6 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 25.044 (8) | 28.361 (7) | 40.74 (3) | 1’34.145 (+0.152) |
| 7 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | 24.996 (6) | 28.263 (3) | 40.926 (8) | 1’34.185 (+0.088) |
| 8 | 63 | George Russell | 25.171 (15) | 28.415 (8) | 40.785 (7) | 1’34.371 (+0.062) |
| 9 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | 24.948 (3) | 28.571 (10) | 40.926 (8) | 1’34.445 (+0.159) |
| 10 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | 25.041 (7) | 28.458 (9) | 40.979 (10) | 1’34.478 (+0.187) |
| 11 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | 25.114 (11) | 28.623 (12) | 41.065 (11) | 1’34.802 (+0.132) |
| 12 | 18 | Lance Stroll | 25.059 (9) | 28.595 (11) | 41.154 (13) | 1’34.808 (+0.030) |
| 13 | 23 | Alexander Albon | 25.117 (12) | 28.665 (14) | 41.116 (12) | 1’34.898 (+0.343) |
| 14 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | 25.1 (10) | 28.691 (15) | 41.303 (14) | 1’35.094 (+0.129) |
| 15 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | 25.167 (14) | 28.764 (16) | 41.304 (15) | 1’35.235 (+0.052) |
| 16 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | 25.416 (20) | 28.766 (17) | 41.323 (16) | 1’35.505 |
| 17 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | 25.204 (16) | 28.893 (19) | 41.419 (17) | 1’35.516 |
| 18 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | 25.246 (18) | 28.639 (13) | 41.688 (19) | 1’35.573 |
| 19 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | 25.244 (17) | 28.864 (18) | 41.539 (18) | 1’35.647 (+0.099) |
| 20 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | 25.328 (19) | 29.066 (20) | 41.71 (20) | 1’36.104 (+0.254) |
Teams’ performance
At the other end of the grid things are much more predictable. Indeed, after missing a pole position for the first time this year in Friday’s sprint qualifying, Red Bull enjoyed the biggest margin of the season so far over their rivals in Saturday’s sprint race, lapping almost half a second quicker than anyone.
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Field performance
This is F1’s first race at Shanghai International Circuit for five years. The current cars are over three-and-a-half seconds slower than the previous generation of machines, but that deficit will be exacerbated by the unusual surface treatment which was unexpectedly applied to the track before F1’s return.
That is expected to change again before F1 returns next year, as the track is due to be fully resurfaced before the 2025 race.
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2024 Chinese Grand Prix
- Aston Martin petitions FIA to review Alonso’s penalty for Sainz collision
- “You need to be more on it”: 12 unheard radio exchanges from the Chinese GP
- Ricciardo needs to show “head-turning form” for 2025 chance – Horner
- With fourth format change in as many years, F1 relegated sprint races to a sideshow
- Williams accept ‘harsh but correct’ penalty for Sargeant
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th April 2024, 23:46
Dare I say alpine’s drivers overachieved, looking at quali it felt like the car was significantly better than usual this season.