Max Verstappen extended his championship lead as he cruised to the chequered flag to claim another dominant win for Red Bull in Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.
Lando Norris capitalised on making his pit stop at reduced speed to gain track position over Sergio Perez, who completed the podium places in the second Red Bull.
Williams elected to withdraw Logan Sargeant, who was scheduled to start 20th, to the pit lane to “experiment” with his set-up ahead of the Sprint weekend in Miami.
But on the grid, there was disruption in the pre-race preparations down at Aston Martin as the mechanics were at work repairing damage to Fernando Alonso’s floor.
Except for Kevin Magnussen on Hards and Lance Stroll, Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda and Sargeant on Softs, the Medium rubber was chosen as the favoured tyre.
Verstappen, who had reported drizzle over the radio when he was sat on the grid, led the formation lap as he prepared to line a Red Bull up on pole for the 100th time.
The Dutchman got another strong launch to be unopposed into Turn 1, while Alonso got alongside Perez and swooped around the outside to split the Red Bull drivers.
Norris avoided committing the same mistake he made in the previous Sprint and retained fourth with team-mate Oscar Piastri fifth, as the two Ferraris dropped places.
Both George Russell and Nico Hulkenberg overtook Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. But Leclerc passed the Haas into the Turn 14 hairpin and Sainz followed through.
Hulkenberg’s regression continued as the Soft-shod Stroll put his Aston Martin up into ninth place, with German having complained that he had been pushed off track.
As Verstappen posted a 1.6-second lead over Alonso at the end of the opening tour, Hamilton had lost a place and the sole driver behind him was Sargeant’s Williams.
Alonso had retained second place for the first four laps, but Perez came through on the inside at Turn 6 on Lap 5. However, he had lost 5s to his team-mate in the lead.
The Aston Martin was now falling into the clutches of the pack behind, which Norris led with a 2.5-second margin over team-mate Piastri, Russell and the two Ferraris.
Norris was within the one-second window needed to activate the DRS down the back straight and moved his McLaren car to the inside at Turn 14 to seize third place.
Russell was beginning to come under more pressure from Leclerc, who angled to the outside to execute a cut-back on the exit of Turn 14 but struggled with traction.
However, Leclerc used a second bite of DRS down the start-finish straight and used that momentum to swing around Russell’s outside through the winding first corner.
Hulkenberg, Tsunoda and Zhou Guanyu had all come into the pits and that triggered further action in the coming laps as Esteban Ocon, Hamilton and Alex Albon boxed.
As Sainz became frustrated behind Russell’s Mercedes, Leclerc’s charge towards the podium places continued as he dived down Piastri’s inside into Turn 14 on Lap 11.
Aston Martin had decided that was the optimal moment to haul Alonso into the pits to change onto the Hard tyre, while Mercedes placed Russell on the Medium rubber.
Hamilton had rued the choice to start on the Soft compound, but he was starting to make some progress at the rear of the field with a move on Tsunoda through Turn 1.
Red Bull decided against being the last team to pit among the front-running pack as has become tradition, servicing both cars with a double stack at the end of Lap 13.
Verstappen had emerged in third but utilised his newer rubber to ease past Leclerc, who was informed that Ferrari was prepared to divert from their pre-race agreement.
McLaren had since told Norris that it believed Ferrari was attempting another one-stop race, prompting the Briton, who was seven seconds clear, to extend his first stint.
Ferrari had decided to split strategies with both cars as Sainz, who had dropped behind Perez on the exit of the hairpin, pitting to switch to the durable Hard compound.
Verstappen had since sailed up to Norris and overtook the McLaren to assume his natural pace at the head of the order, with Perez still stranded down in fourth place.
Valtteri Bottas reported an engine problem as he parked his car at Turn 11, ending his chance at points and resulting in a Virtual Safety Car to clear the stricken Sauber.
McLaren failed to take the chance to pit Norris while the race was run under neutralised conditions, but Ferrari took advantage of the opening to pit and crop up in fifth.
However, McLaren’s podium prospects were rescued as the VSC remained and enabled Norris to circulate for another lap and venture into the pits for his sole pit stop.
The VSC was then upgraded to the full Safety Car, prompting Verstappen and Perez to discard their used Hards, dropping the Mexican behind both Norris and Leclerc.
Aston Martin capitalised to put Alonso onto his available fresh set of the Soft compound and dropped to sixth, while Russell moved back onto another set of Mediums.
The order as the drivers were readied to return to racing speed was Verstappen leading from Norris, Leclerc, Perez, Sainz, Alonso, Russell, Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo.
Hamilton was still languishing outside the points-scoring places in 13th place and lamented the balance troubles he was combating on his Mercedes W15 on the radio.
The race resumed as Verstappen crossed the start-finish line on Lap 27, with the Dutchman pulling over one second clear of Norris’ McLaren inside the opening sector.
There was drama further back as Tsunoda’s race was run as Magnussen tipped him into an unfortunate spin on the restart at Turn 5, handing the Haas driver a puncture.
The other RB driver had also been in the wars prior to that when the pack bunched up at the hairpin ahead of the race’s resumption, with Stroll piling into Ricciardo’s rear.
Stroll had complained that Ricciardo slammed on the brakes and dropped from 10th as he had to make an additional pit stop, while the Australian reported floor damage.
Before the Safety Car had intervened for the second time, Alonso had maximised the grip afforded from the Softs to get a slingshot onto the back straight to pass Sainz.
Proceedings would get going once more at the end of Lap 31 with Verstappen again nailing the restart procedure to streak clear from Norris, Leclerc, Perez and Alonso.
Ricciardo’s floor damage appeared to be costing him as he slipped from ninth to 13th when Hulkenberg, Hamilton, Ocon’s Alpine and Alex Albon’s Williams passed him.
The RB driver reported that he had no grip and the Faenza-based squad elected to retire his damaged car right as Stroll was handed a 10-second time drop for the clash.
Magnussen was penalised as he was deemed responsible for curtailing Tsunoda’s race, while Sargeant also felt the wrath of the stewards for a Safety Car infringement.
Verstappen was managing the pace out front, but Norris had opened up a solid four-second margin over Leclerc, who was more occupied with Perez and Alonso behind.
Zhou’s maiden home outing had been a quiet affair to this point, but the Sauber man delighted the Chinese crowd roaring him on with an overtake on Sargeant for 14th.
Perez had his sights set on returning to the podium places and passed Leclerc on Lap 39 into Turn 6, leaving the Ferrari racer to complain about the state of his rubber.
Sainz had not pitted during the earlier interruptions and Russell was on his rear as the lead Mercedes driver courted the Spaniard’s position inside the top six runners.
Hulkenberg had rebuffed Hamilton’s attack into Turn 14, but the seven-time F1 champion swept around the outside of Turn 8 to claim the inside line for the next corner.
Piastri ahead in eighth was nursing substantial damage to his McLaren car and Hamilton was bidding to exploit that to complete a comeback drive to eighth position.
Aston Martin’s Soft compound gamble had not delivered the upside the Silverstone-based squad had hoped and Alonso reverted to the Mediums with 12 laps to run.
But Alonso was able to compensate for that mishap as he overhauled Hulkenberg, Hamilton and Piastri with a charge in the closing exchanges to climb up to seventh.
Alonso’s race could have ended in spectacular fashion, however, as his pursuit of Hamilton had witnessed him dip a wheel into the gravel on the exit of the final turn.
The Shanghai International Circuit had been one circuit that Verstappen had not won at before, but he changed that with another stellar drive to convert pole position.
Verstappen ended up 13.7 seconds up the road from Norris in cruise control mode, with the Briton possessing the speed to prevent Perez from launching a challenge.
Perez had to settle for the third step of the podium rostrum on this occasion, with Ferrari’s streak of top-three finishes this season ending as Leclerc finished in fourth.
Sainz trailed home a sizeable distance behind his team-mate to complete the top five runners, while Mercedes had to settle for sixth position through George Russell.
Alonso, who had been running in second at the start, was the sole Aston Martin in the points in seventh and he also claimed the bonus point for setting the fastest lap.
Piastri managed to bring his damaged car ahead of Hamilton’s Mercedes in eighth and ninth, with Hulkenberg taking the honour of securing the final point in 10th place.
