Chinese Grand Prix: Verstappen wins; Norris second

Max Verstappen annihilated the competition to win the Chinese Grand Prix.

The Dutchman was in a league of his own again – even over his team-mate Sergio Perez – in a race punctuated by two mid-race safety cars in quick succession.

Safety cars broke up Red Bull’s cruise to a one-two finish, shuffling Perez behind McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

The Mexican soon picked off Leclerc but Norris drove an exceptional final stint to hold on to second ahead of Perez.

Verstappen underlined his superiority over everyone, including Perez, with a crushing first stint of the race.

The world champion converted his pole position into a lead at the first corner while Perez was passed around the outside by Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, which started third.

It took Perez until lap five to pass Alonso, by which time Verstappen was five seconds up the road.

And over the eight laps before his pit stop, Verstappen lapped at least 0.5 seconds faster than Perez to extend his lead to 10 seconds by the time he stopped for tyres for the first time on lap 13, a gap large enough for Red Bull to pit both cars on the same lap without losing any time.

The next demonstration of Verstappen’s superiority came three laps later when he caught and passed Leclerc – he had made up a pit stop’s worth of race time over a man battling for the final podium place in just 16 laps.

After that, he calmly navigated the rest of the race, well clear of the rest of the field, to take his fourth win in five races this year – victorious in all the events he has finished. (BBC)