Flawed Driving in Second Chinese Grand Prix, Maldonado Wins

Qualifying:

Pos	#	Driver	Constructor	Time
1	63	Diego Álvarez Torrente		1:32.612
2	29	Pastor Maldonado		1:32.775
3	30	Dean Stoneman		1:32.906
4	2	Lewis Hamilton		1:33.096
5	1	Sebastian Vettel		1:33.123
6	34	Valtteri Bottas		1:33.269
7	33	Einar Ármannsson		1:33.556
8	62	Jules Bianchi		1:33.801
9	28	Daniel Melrose		1:33.847
10	27	Dave Cassidy		1:33.992
11	22	Jordan Davies		1:34.647
12	21	Stoffel Vandoorne		1:34.892
13	23	Pierre Gasly		1:34.974
14	24	Kevin Magnussen		1:35.016
15	66	Pascal Wehrlein		1:35.095
16	119	Felix Rosenqvist		1:35.129
17	5	Marvin Kirchhöfer		1:35.251
18	90	James James Davies		1:35.432
19	67	Mike Rockenfeller		1:35.783
20	91	Max Verstappen		1:35.865
21	55	Artem Markelov		1:35.952
22	118	Carlos Sainz Jr		1:36.002
23	6	Santiago Urrutia		1:36.058
24	56	Sergey Sirotkin		1:36.063

Report:

One of the most common criticisms of contemporary F1 is that the cars have too many driver aids and are therefore even capable of being driven by 15-year old children. Well, if that is true, then this driver field must have been 12 years old at best.

If you had to sum up this race in three words, those would be “unforced driver errors”. Nobody embodied this better than Precision driver Torrente, who added another “learning experience” to his career by throwing away a race that, after half the distance, seemed won.

This allowed Pastor Maldonado to cruise to his fifth win in six races, followed home to second by Jules Bianchi, who overcame a terrible qualifying effort by staying on the black stuff, Sebastian Vettel and the two Ferrari drivers, who made their case for 2020 by staying cool.

Other drivers profiting from the errors at the front were Pierre Gasly and Kevin Magnussen, who helped FAST’s hunt for 6th place in the WCC, especially given as Haas where not competitive and Felix Rosenqvist, who scored his first career point in Formula One.

Race:

Pos	#	Driver	Constructor	Time/Retired	Points
1	29	Pastor Maldonado		49:33.146	15
2	62	Jules Bianchi		+14.232	12
3	1	Sebastian Vettel		+21.866	10
4	28	Daniel Melrose		+30.858	8
5	27	Dave Cassidy		+37.170	6
6	33	Einar Ármannsson		+40.074	5
7	23	Pierre Gasly		+60.739	4
8	24	Kevin Magnussen		+64.499	3
9	30	Dean Stoneman		+68.622	2
10	119	Felix Rosenqvist		+73.120	1
11	66	Pascal Wehrlein		+83.246	0
12	55	Artem Markelov		+84.950	0
13	21	Stoffel Vandoorne		+87.146	0
14	91	Max Verstappen		+91.602	0
15	22	Jordan Davies		1 Lap	0
16	67	Mike Rockenfeller		1 Lap	0
17	90	James James Davies		1 Lap	0
18	6	Santiago Urrutia		1 Lap	0
19	56	Sergey Sirotkin		1 Lap	0
20	5	Marvin Kirchhöfer		1 Lap	0
DNF	63	Diego Álvarez Torrente		Accident	0
DNF	2	Lewis Hamilton		Accident	0
DNF	118	Carlos Sainz Jr		Accident	0
DNF	34	Valtteri Bottas		Accident	0

Fastest Lap:

Diego Álvarez Torrente – 1:33.894

Infinite Improbability Drive Of The Race:

Ferrari – their drivers drove extremely wise, a well-earned fourteen points.

Reject Of The Race:

Diego Álvarez Torrente – he had the race under control, but threw it away in a shameful rookie error.