Max Verstappen F1: Red Bull driver proved even more dominant in the Chinese GP

Max Verstappen managed to win the Grand Prix of China for the first time in his F1 career. The Red Bull Racing driver was supreme on Sunday, but he now appears to be even more dominant than first thought.

Verstappen had another great weekend at the Shanghai International Circuit, where the premier class of motorsport competed for the first time since 2019. He had to settle for P4 during the rainy sprint qualifying, but made up for it in Saturday’s Sprint by overtaking Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso and winning by 13 seconds. The Dutchman then took pole position and also managed to win Sunday’s Grand Prix with such a lead, despite the Safety Car periods halfway through the race. He now has a lead of 25 points over teammate Sergio Pérez and 34 points over Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.

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Domination after dominance is horrible

Behind Verstappen, Norris managed to beat Pérez for second position, his fifteenth podium of his career, and the Mexican had to settle for third place. Leclerc made up two places and saw the checkered flag in fourth.

However, no one could attack Verstappen at the front. Analysis also shows that literally every lap that was not completed behind the Safety Car, he managed to widen the gap on Norris, Pérez and Leclerc. Sky Sports F1 analyst Karun Chandhok knew this X (formerly Twitter) to reveal after viewing the data. Every lap in Shanghai he managed to clock a better lap time than the numbers two to four.

Not everyone is equally happy with the Limburger’s supreme performance. “This may be ‘impressive’, but it also shows how little competition there is in F1 these days. We actually know who is going to win before any cars have gone out in free practice. Dominance after dominance is horrendous to see and not what these regulations would bring us,” was the response on social media. Chandhok agrees: “I agree. At least from 2014 to 2016 we still had Nico [Rosberg] against Lewis [Hamilton].”

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