I Know I Usually Do Little Recap Posts But Since The Time Difference Is Insane And The Quali And Race

One last race before the season ends and I'm already crying because Nico's at abu dhabi talking about Lewis and Mercedes during the pre-show

*clawing at the bars of my enclosure* I DONT HATE LIAM BUT YUKI DESERVED IT MORE I DONT HATE LIAM BUT YUKI DESERVED IT MORE I DONT HATE LIAM BUT YUKI DESE

is the lewis hamilton and fernando alonso dynamic not just mr turner and dinkleberg on a less cartoony scale

Skysports needs to stop talking about the possibility of this being Daniel's last race or I will burst out into tears

All I'm hoping for this weekend is a Max Verstappen win so we can finally see him jump into that pool 😔

he is so..

QUALI RECAP: Chinese GP 2024

Ft. Nico Rosberg quotes because he's commentating again (scroll to the bottom bit)

Out in Q1

P20: Logan Sargeant, who spun out and caused a yellow flag

P19: Yuki Tsunoda, whose DRS wasn't working until the last 6 minutes of Q1

"I mean, there's definitely something going on, I can't be fucking 19. Honestly, the lap was pretty good." - Yuki Tsunoda, Team radio

P18: Lewis Hamilton goes too aggressively in his final lap and exits Q1 for the first time since Jeddah 2022

"When I was making the set-up changes I was like, it can't get any worse surely- and it did." - Lewis Hamilton

P17: Kevin Magnussen

P16: Zhou Guanyu, who placed an impressive P9 for the sprint, gets knocked down and out by Charles Leclerc, to the frustration of his home city

Out in Q2

P15: Pierre Gasly, who makes it into Q2 for the first time this year

P14: Alex Albon, who has exited Q2 in every race this season

P13: Esteban Ocon

P12: Daniel Ricciardo made it into Q2, out-qualifying Tsunoda for the first time this year. He had a minor setback when he reported smoke coming from his breaks in Q1, and wasn't able to advance to Q3

P11: Lance Stroll

Q3 results

P10: Valterri Bottas, who is on an absolute roll with his pace in China, qualifying P9 during the sprint

P9: Nico Hulkenberg, also managing to pull the HAAS to decent results

P8: George Russell

P7: Carlos Sainz, who crashed in Q2 (red flag) but came back on track in time to place third fastest, apparently struggling in Q3

P6: Charles Leclerc, who struggled a bit as well during Q3

P5: Oscar Piastri

P4: Lando Norris, who got pole for the sprint only to finish an unfortunate P6

P3: Fernando Alonso, oversteering a little in his final lap and just getting knocked down by Perez

P2: Checo Perez, making yet another front row lock-out for Red Bull

P1: Max Verstappen, taking Red Bull's 100th pole position, his first pole in China, and becoming the first driver to qualify P1 in all 5 starting races of the calender since Mika Hakkinen.

Bonus Nico Rosberg Commentary

"It's a super difficult one isn't it, for Mercedes. Lewis has put them into quite the difficult position there." (About what Mercedes will do after Lewis leaves)

"Lewis, you know, the 7 time world champion. That's a mistake probably that should be avoidable."

"Lewis tends to say we have so different set-ups and such a big car difference and that's kind of his excuse this year…and he's gone again for that"

"I'm happy to appear on a statistic. I don't appear much very often anymore 'cause it's so long ago." (The statistic being previous poles in Shanghai)

"I know that because he [Fernando Alonso]'s my rival in those statistics. That's why I know his numbers."

Seeing people genuinely be so happy for Zhou after he scored Sauber's first points of the season warms my heart so much. He's suffered so much scrutiny and pressure, being Chinese but also just being stuck in a bad car and not being able to show much performance. I've also never really heard him mentioned outside of his crash, his back marker-ing or at the Chinese GP, so I'm glad he's getting his moment :)