Verstappen's resilience: P4 finish and late-race pace highlight Chinese GP challenges

Max Verstappen focused on the positives of the Chinese Grand Prix despite struggling for pace against the front runners for much of the race. The Red Bull driver finished second in Saturday's Sprint but only managed fourth on the grid for the Grand Prix, behind McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, and Mercedes' George Russell.

During the race, Verstappen fell behind Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in the early stages. However, he regained positions as Leclerc struggled with damage and Hamilton adopted a two-stop strategy, ultimately finishing 5.5 seconds behind Russell.

“The beginning, it was not easy,” said Verstappen. “I just drove to the pace that we set out to do, but that was not at the same level as the cars ahead. The medium was probably a bit more difficult, but actually, on the hard tyre, from basically the second half phase, we seemed a little bit more competitive, a little bit more promising at least.

"That was at least enjoyable—trying to catch the cars ahead, having a bit of a fight as well. I think we’ll take that as a positive, that there is pace in the car at some point. We just need to understand a bit more why it didn’t happen at the beginning and why at the end of the race it was a bit better."

With late-race pace, Verstappen overtook Leclerc for fourth place, making a spectacular pass around the outside of Turn 3. Reflecting on the move, he added: “It’s positive and better than expected after that first stint of the race. We’ll take that, analyze everything from the weekend, and hopefully in Japan we can be a bit more competitive.”

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