Zoom Zoom- Race Two! China GP! Sir Lewis snags the Sprint, Team Papaya flexes, and a post-race decision shocker that shakes up the standings!

Welcome back Zoomies! I think most of us have mostly recovered from last week's Australia GP, wet and wild as it was! Now we move on to Shanghai, and we get our first Sprint Race of the season, which will garner teams some points, so only one true Practice session.

This weeks "Stirring the Pot" goes to McLaren team principal Zak Brown, who floated out to the media that Red Bull may have made a mistake by putting Lawson in the 2nd seat ! Oh Zak, you cheeky devil! I've been seeing a lot of creative artwork for this race, this one is one of my favorites:

And not just because its Ferrari! It's just cool! :)

As always, your team/driver graphic:

The Chinese GP is also reserve driver for Ferrari, Zhou Granyu, who had a seat at Sauber last year, home race. In honor of his home race, thought I would share a pic of Zhou with his kitty, who he absolutely adores! (some of the videos I've seen are very "AWWW" inspiring!).

A (racing) boy and his cat! We support ALL driver furballs here in the Zoom Zoom Lounge!

Considering how Alpine driver Jack Doohan may be on a short leash with FOUR reserve drivers waiting for Jack to fail, he gets my Driver of the Race Week eye candy!

Onto the only Practice race for this weekend! P1: 60 minute, and the only practice due to the Sprint races. Shanghai morning is sunny, high 70's, 22% humidity, and a stiff wind. the track has been completely resurfaced, so that could be interesting. All teams starting on medium tyres. Uneventful practice until 13 minutes left, when Jack Doohan's car's hydraulics just crapped out and glided safely into the gravel prompting a red flag. Red flag lifted with seven minutes remaining, and drivers coming out on soft tyres. Lando Norris finished first, Charles LeClerc 2nd , Lando's teammate, Oscar Piastri 3rd. Ollie Bearman finished P1! Williams Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon of Williams also did well!

Onto Sprint Qualifying!

A note on how Qualifying works: There are three quick races to determine grid position for the GP race. First quali the last five drivers are cut, second quali again, last five drivers dropped, and 3rd and final quali determines the top ten on the grid and the ever important pole (1st) position. This also applies to the Sprint Qualis, you will just see me use SQ1 to show the difference.

SQ1: 12 minutes. the the temperature and track is very hot, tyre degradation could play a part here in these three qualis! New medium tyres required to be used in SQ1 (da rules). Alpine's Jack Doohan has had his power unit replaced after the first one went to motorsports heaven in P1. No incidents, so the bottom five back of the brid are: Lawson/RB, Ocon/Haas, Gasly/Alpine, Doohan/Alpine, Hulkenberg/Sauber. SQ2: 10 minutes.All drivers on Medium tyres. No incidents. next bottom five are: Hadjar/RB, Bortoleto/ Sauber, Sainz/ Williams (!!!), Alonso/Aston-Martin, and Bearman/Haas. Kimi Antonelli only rookie to make the top 10! SQ3: 8 minutes. Soft tyres time! No incidents. Hamilton takes Sprint pole, Verstappen-2nd, Piastri-3rd, LeClerc-4th, Russell-5th, Norris, 6th, Antonelli-7th, Tsunoda, 8th, Albon-9th, and rounding out the top ten on the grind, Stroll-Aston-Martin. Sir Lewis was quite adorable with his giggles when team radio told him he snagged pole! China Sprint Race: 19 laps. No mandatory pit stops. 16 turns. All drivers on Medium tyres. Clear skies and very warm temperatures. and it's LIGHTS OUT, and Lewis holds the lead, with Max behind him, Oscar holding 3rd, but Lando had a lock-up and has dropped back three spots to 9th! Lewis has total control of this race, and ends up winning the Sprint by seven seconds, the first ever for Ferrari! Oscar did a brilliant overtake on Max to finish 2nd, while Max limped in on shredded tyres on 3rd! Russell-4th, LeClerc-5th, Tsunoda-6th, Antonelli-7th, and Lando clawed back to get the last point in 8th!

Doohan must've lost a bet with his mates, cuz this is how he looked in pre-season! He reminds of of hooligan #3 in a British crime series!

Was it a game of pool? Darts? Fastest lap time? Oh Jack, no more bets!

Onto GP Qualifying! Q1: 18 minutes. Just a few hours after the Sprint race, so lets see how the drivers and the cars and especially the tyres react with regard to tyre degradation. Sunny and clear at 78 degrees. All drivers starting on soft. No incidents, so the back of the grid bottom five are both Alpines, Doohan and Gasly, Bearman/Haas, Bortoleto/Sauber, and Lawson/Red Bull. Norris came in first, both RB's slayed, coming in 2nd and 3rd with Yuki Tsunoda 3rd and Isack Hadjar 2nd! The other rookie, Antonelli also did well, in 10th! That was a fun lil Q1!

Q2: 15 minutes: No incidents, so the next bottom five are: Both Aston-Martins, Stroll and Alonso, Ocon/Haas, Hulkenberg, Sauber, and a surprise, Sainz/Ferrari! Norris won thie quali again, and both Isack and Yuki for RB in the top five! Antonell of Mercedes in 9th!

Q3: 12 minutes. No incidents, but on the final lap, both Lando and Yuki aborted their laps...hmmm. Oscar Paistri gets his first ever pole position while also setting the fastest lap time on this track, at 1:30:641! George Russell of Mercedes is on the front row with Oscar in 2nd (where did that come from?!), Lando in 3rd, Max in 4th, Sir Lewis in 5th, LeClerc in 6th, Isack Hadjar in 7th. Antonelli in 8th, (what a weekend for both these rookie drivers!), Yuki in 9th, and Albon rounds out the top ten! A side note: I am seeing a lot of folks stating that the second Red Bull seat is cursed, and don't they dare move Yuki or Isack into that seat!

Much better with the hair, Jack!

China Grand Prix: 56 Laps. 14 turns. Sunny day, high 70's clear skies, and mild winds. This race will be all about the tyres, and the management of them, as tire degradation will lead to graining (imagine a tyre with very bad acne, thats graining, and no grip!). FYI, it is Alex Albon's birthday this GP race day! Can Alex bring home points for his Williams team? Almost all teams starting in Medium tyres, Bearman, Stroll, and Lawson starting on Hard tyres. It's LIGHTS OUT and Oscar holds off Russell on the first turn, then Lando overtakes Russell a few turns later on Lap 1, also, the two Ferrari cars clip each other, Hamilton's car okay, LeClerc's car lost a left wing , but they are able to continue to race. Lap 5, we have Alonso's brakes on fire, and as you might imagine team Aston-Martin retires the car for a DNF (Did Not Finish).

On Laps 14-16, almost all drivers have pitted to change their tyres to Hard, LeClerc pitted also, didn't change the front wing yet??? So as Lap 17 starts after the pit lane shuffle, it's birthday boy Albon in the lead, with Oscar 2nd, Russell, 3rd, Lando 4th. Albon hasn't pitted yet to change tyres, so this lead will be brief, as the drivers behind him are on new Hard tyres. On Lap 20, Albon pits for new tyres, so its both McLaren cars up front, with Russell in 3rd, and the teo Ferrari's 4th and fifth, Max in 6th.

Lap 40, and the top six remain the same as they debate to either stay the course withthe tyres they have now, or pit for fresh tyres, but risck losing position on the grind. Haas Ollie Bearman is having a MUCH better weekend in Singapore than he did in Melbourne, having started in 17th, and with several sleek overtakes, is now holding onto the last point at 10th!

His teammate, Ocon has been running a quite efficient race, is currently in 7th! Lap 47, Yuki Tsunoda's right front wing just snapped, and is dragging on the track, so he boxes to get that wing swapped out for another one, and change his tyres. Bad luck there for Yuki. Alpine's Jack Doohan hit with a 10 second penalty for forcing Hadjar off the track a few laps ago! Seems the Driver Eye Candy curse strikes again! :) On the last lap, Oscar is ahead of Lando by 8 seconds, while Lando is struggling with his brake pads, giving Russell a shot at a late charge, but it was not to be, as Oscar wins the China GP, and his teammate Lando finishes 2nd, giving McLaren their 50th 1-2 finish in team history! Russell finishes 3rd, Max Verstappen 4th as he overtook LeClerc, who finishes 5th, Sir Lewis in 6th, Ocon in 7th (great race by him!), Antonelli in 8th, birthday boy Albon in 9th, and Ollie holds on to 10th for the last point!

Driver of the Day fan vote went to Kimi Antonelli. Where were the Oscar fans?? :)

Team Papaya joy picture:

Post Race Update! For technical reasons, both Ferrari cars were disqualified, so no points and move everyone else up into the points, except Gasly, who was also DQ'ed! So Stroll and Sainz are 9th and 10th. Gasly and LeClerc DQ'ed due to being under the required weight restrictions (the car and driver, minus fuel), and Hamilton DQ'ed do the plank under the car being thinner than it should be! Pure guess here, but could it have been that left rear wing falling off that caused LeClerc's car to be under the weight restrictions? No race next week, so we will get together for the Japan Grand Prix in Susuka in a fortnight!