On F1’s return to Shanghai Max Verstappen gave a celebratory little power slide out of the hairpin on his final lap, which he completed 13sec clear of the field despite having had a previous 10sec lead wiped out by a safety car. Fernando Alonso made a remarkable save late in the race, rescuing his Aston Martin from around 40-degrees out of line exiting the final turn. Through the twisting Turn 9-10 the cars struggled to get their power down and went through there in an edgy dance between lateral and longitudinal grip.
But actually none of that was the real stuff of significance, merely dramatic flourishes. The real challenge of the Chinese Grand Prix was keeping the tyre surface temperatures between the front and rear axles equalised. To slide the fronts enough to bring them up to the temperature of the rears.
That was Sunday’s challenge, at least. That of the sprint the day before had been a more traditional control of rear tyre core temperatures, a challenge in which the Red Bull and the Ferraris were the best. But with the Ferraris stuck for half the sprint in a train led by the tyre-degrading Aston of Alonso, they didn’t get anywhere near challenging the Red Bulls.
