Red Bull settle for minor points from Chinese Grand Prix

Red Bull picked up a small number of points from the Chinese Grand Prix, with Isack Hadjar finishing 8th while Max Verstappen did not finish.

Hadjar recovered from a first lap spin to take 8th, although he finished behind his former teammate Liam Lawson in Red Bull’s junior team Racing Bulls. Meanwhile, Verstappen had been on course for a 6th place finish only for a power unit failure to see him crawl to a halt after 46 laps.

The result means that after 2 races and 1 sprint, Red Bull have 12 points, which is the same as their junior team Racing Bulls but where a 6th place for Verstappen in last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix gives the Milton Keynes-based senior team the lead.

Verstappen sits 8th in the early standings, meanwhile teammate Hadjar is 11th after collecting 4 points.

Having failed to score points in the sprint race on Saturday, Red Bull were looking to pick up points, but as happened in the sprint, the team were involved in a very difficult opening lap.

In this instance, Verstappen again bogged down and dropped places off the start. A more dramatic fall down the order came for Hadjar, however. The Frenchman was passed by the Haas of Ollie Bearman and when Hadjar tried to re-take the place, he spun the car. While he was able to avoid a collision, he was forced into a stop for new tyres straight away and resumed at the back.

Having started on soft tyres, Verstappen had been unable to get up the order and he opted after 9 laps to pit for a new set of tyres. This came just before the safety car was deployed, however, as Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin broke down in a place that required the safety car to retrieve the Canadian’s car.

Verstappen had got involved in a battle for the first laps after the restart with the Haas and Alpine cars. But as it wore on, he was able to get into 6th position, in a gap between Bearman’s Haas and the Alpine of his ex-Red Bull teammate Pierre Gasly.

With 10 laps remaining, however, Verstappen’s Red Bull power unit suffered a race ending failure, leaving the Dutchman having to do a slow in-lap before parking the car.

Hadjar, meanwhile, was able to clear some traffic and was bumped up positions when drivers who started on hard tyres such as Franco Colapinto, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg pit. This allowed him to move up to 8th, where he would remain until the end of the race.

Red Bull will look for better results at the next race, which comes at the Japanese Grand Prix in two weeks time.