Isack Hadjar recovered from an early spin to battle his way to an eighth-place finish to cap off a frustrating, attritional Chinese Grand Prix in which Max Verstappen was forced to retire from sixth place, just 11 laps from home.
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Hear from the Team after a tough weekend in Shanghai.
Ahead of the start, the forecast for both drivers looked bright as technical problems wiped both McLarens out of the race, pushing them up two places on the grid. However, when the lights went out at the start, the advantage evaporated. Max bogged down and as he slowly pulled away, he was swamped by rival cars and plunged towards the rear of the field after Turn 1.
Isack got away better, but he immediately got embroiled in a tussle with Haas’ Ollie Bearman. The Haas driver got past the Frenchman but went wide as he did so. Isack saw an immediate opportunity to respond and powered past the Briton but in doing so he went too hard on the throttle with cool tyres, and he spun into the run-off area. Continuing but dropping to 18th place, he immediately headed to the pit lane to make a switch to Hard tyres and a long recovery.
Ahead, Max was already into his recovery and by lap 3 the Dutchman was already back into the points as he powered past backmarkers and claimed 10th place behind Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad. The 18-year-old was driving well, however, and Max’s progress briefly stalled as the rookie went on the defensive.
At the front, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton had taken the lead at the start, ahead of Mercedes polesitter Kimi Antonelli, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the second Mercedes of George Russell. The front four were soon swapping positions, however, and as the first stint evolved Antonelli retook the lead with Russell also demoting Hamilton and Leclerc to third and fourth respectively.
On lap 8, Max was on the radio telling GP that the front left tyre of his starting set of Softs was “dead’ and on Lap 10 the Dutchman dived into the pit to bolt on a set of Hard tyres.
Within moments of him rejoining the race, Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin trundled to a stop in the run-off at Turn 1 and the Safety car was deployed.
Apart from the drivers who had started on Hard tyres, the rest of the field grabbed the opportunity of a cheap stop and as the order shook out, with Antonelli ahead of Hard tyres staters, Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon, Max found himself back in P13, with Isack now in P17.
Max began another hard charge back to the points and as his second stint unfolded, the Dutchman hauled his way through the order, with one standout moment when he pounced on a tussle between Alpine’s Piere Gasly and Haas’ Esteban Ocon to power past both in Turn 1 and grab P8.
With the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers stretching away at the front, but then on lap 46, a frustrating afternoon was completed as Max’s car was retired, owing to an ERS coolant fault.
Behind him, Isack had also been on the hunt for points and after Max was forced out of the race, the Frenchman settled into eighth place. With three seconds ahead to Racing Bull’s Liam Lawson and a sizable gap to Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Franco Colapinto behind him, the Frenchman eventually settled back and claimed four points for the team.