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F1 live blog The Sprint Race of the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix

F1 LIVE | The Sprint Race at the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix weekend

20 April at 03:00
Last update 20 April at 11:06

Lando Norris starts the first Sprint Race of 2024 at the Chinese Grand Prix from pole position. Lewis Hamilton will start alongside the McLaren driver, with Fernando Alonso completing the Top 3 on the grid. Can Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and the two Ferraris climb up the grid after an exciting Sprint Shootout yesterday? Can Guanyu Zhou score his first points of the season at his home Grand Prix? You can follow it with our live blog from GPblog.com.

F1 LIVE | Sprint Race: Chinese Grand Prix

 

It was Lando Norris who claimed pole position for the Sprint Race during Friday's Sprint Qualifying. After a misunderstanding by the stewards, the McLaren driver put in a mighty lap that was first deleted then reinstated. Lewis Hamilton will line up alongside Norris, after a Mercedes driver did a great lap and was on pole position for a minute until he got the news. Appereantly, after he was told he got P1, he did not push any further.

Max Verstappen will only start from P4, after he made some mistakes in SQ3 on Friday, and hopes to rely on his race pace to get the better of his rivals starting ahead of him. The two Ferrari drivers were also not completely satisfied with their results, Carlos Sainz will start from P5, Charles Leclerc will begin the Sprint from P7. Driving in his first home Grand Prix in Formula 1, Guanyu Zhou qualified in P10.

As teams' only had one practice session this weekend, strategies for the Sprint might be interesting. Red Bull did most of their laps on medium tyres in FP1, Ferrari opted to use the softs, while the two Mercedes and Fernando Alonso all only did laps on the hardest compound. Whether these choices were made for the Grand Prix or the Sprint Race, we will only found out once the five red lights go out at the Shanghai International Circuit.