Max Verstappen has now won more F1 races than all Finnish drivers combined. Valtteri Bottas was once again disappointed when Sauber suffered an engine failure.
Red Bull Max Verstappen won the Chinese F1 race in Shanghai. The victory was Verstappen’s 58th in his F1 career. At the same time, Verstappen now already has more wins than the Finnish F1 drivers combined. Kimi Raikkonen, Mika Hakkinen, Valtteri Bottas, Keke Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen have collected a total of 57 wins.
Verstappen left Finnish F1 history already on Saturday, when he took the fifth consecutive pole position. In F1 history, only Mika Häkkinen had previously started the season with five consecutive pole positions. Häkkinen was able to do the same trick in the second championship season in 1999.
The 26-year-old Verstappen now raised Holland to fourth in the comparison of countries. Verstappen is the only Dutch driver to have won an F1 race. However, only France (81), Brazil (101), Germany (179) and Great Britain (309) are ahead of Holland.
– I was able to do whatever I wanted with the car. These weekends feel incredible, said Verstappen in the on-track interview after the race.
2016: 1
2017: 2
2018: 2
2019: 3
2020: 2
2021: 10
2022: 15
2023: 19
2024: 4
Kimi Räikkönen 21 wins
Mika Häkkinen 20 wins
Valtteri Bottas 10 wins
Keke Rosberg 5 wins
Heikki Kovalainen 1 win
McLaren behind Verstappen Lando Norris succeeded handsomely and was second before the other Red Bull driver Sergio Perez. For Norris, the podium finish was the second of the season. He was third in Australia earlier this year.
– I am really surprised and happy. We had good pit stops. I didn’t expect a podium place, Norris said, and said that he was particularly surprised by how far the Ferrari drivers were left.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth, ten seconds behind Norris and Carlos Sainz Fifth by twenty seconds for McLaren’s young British driver.
– Before the race, I bet how far we would be from Ferrari today. I thought it would be about 35 seconds. I was really wrong about that. I’m really glad I was wrong about myself. This was a good day for everyone in the team, Norris said.
Another disappointment for Bottas
Valtteri Bottas fought for his first points of the F1 season in China, but had to retire with engine failure on the 21st lap.
Bottas was eleventh at the time of the stoppage. He fought for a place in the top ten. Bottas was tied for one point and tenth, but fell behind Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg during the pit stop.
Still, Bottas is only a few seconds away from the points. In China, Bottas should have had excellent opportunities for points, as he started from the 10th grid.
The start of the season has been difficult for Bottas. In the first five races, Bottas has been at his best twice, fourteenth, in Japan and Australia.
Score
Drivers’ point standings
Points standings of the teams