Max Verstappen won again after one lap and Fernando Alonso surprised again. If the Dutchman has no rival this 2024, neither in long runs, nor in short races like the first of the course that he won in Shanghai, nor in qualy (5th pole in a row he put in his pocket), the Asturian remains the great entertainer of the season.
Spurred by the 10-second penalty he earned in the Sprint after causing a collision with Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso achieved third place on the starting grid for the long race of the Chinese GP (this Sunday, at 9:00 a.m. Spanish).
The qualifying session in China, with the track dry (unlike the qualy for the Sprint), had a first victim in Lewis Hamilton, who did not make it past Q1, and a second in Carlos Sainz, who went off the track in Q2 and crashed into the protective wall.
The Madrid native damaged his Ferrari and the session had to be stopped with a red flag so that the wall could be repaired. The driver did not suffer any damage and was able to join Q2, in which he was third.
“It was a good scare. I was able to change the direction a little before crashing as soon as I saw that I was going against the wall, I hit at another angle so as not to damage the car,” explained the Madrid native.
In the final Q3, Verstappen once again devastated his rivals with the best time in the two fastest lap attempts. The news was Fernando Alonso, who set a spectacular lap to beat the Ferraris and the McLarens, and sneak behind the two Red Bulls into third place.
“It has been an incredible Saturday again. We have not given up and we have achieved a good time. The car has improved in the configuration to improve balance problems and let’s see if that translates into points in the race. We are not in the position that We still want to, but we keep pushing,” commented the Asturian, satisfied with his best grid position of the year. “But it’s the trend this year: we qualify very well and then in the race we make a block. But we’re not going to apologize for qualifying so well…!”
Checo Pérez will start second behind his teammate Verstappen, Alonso will share the second row with Norris, and Sainz had to settle for seventh place, fourth row.
