Formulation 1 makes a welcome return to the Shanghai Worldwide Circuit this weekend for the primary Chinese language Grand Prix since 2019. To mark the event, we’ve rolled again the years and picked out among the most memorable moments within the occasion’s historical past because it made its debut on the calendar in 2004…
2005: Schumacher caught out in pre-race crash
A seven-time world champion and with an array of data behind him, Michael Schumacher’s first two visits to China fell effectively beneath his lofty expectations.
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Having spun out of qualifying and failed to attain some extent within the 2004 race, the Ferrari driver confronted a good greater problem the next yr when he was concerned in a weird conflict with Minardi’s Christijan Albers on the way in which to the grid.
Schumacher had been slowly making his method from Flip 4 to the Flip 5 kink when he moved throughout the observe and into the trail of the fast-approaching Albers, inflicting all types of harm to each vehicles and forcing them to take their spares.
It went from unhealthy to worse for Schumacher through the race, with the stewards reprimanding him for his actions earlier than he spun into the gravel behind the Security Automotive.
2006: Schumacher’s final Formulation 1 victory
It proved to be third time fortunate for Schumacher in 2006 when, amid a fierce title battle with Renault rival Fernando Alonso, he scored an announcement Shanghai win.
Contemporary from slashing Alonso’s factors lead together with his triumph and the Spaniard’s retirement at Monza, Schumacher was decided to maintain the momentum going and tip the title race in his favour forward of the ultimate two rounds in Japan and Brazil.
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It initially seemed as if Alonso would get the job performed on race day, with moist circumstances at the beginning suiting the Michelin quite than Bridgestone runners, however because the climate improved and the observe dried up, the encounter got here again to Schumacher.
On the finish of all of it, Schumacher led Alonso dwelling by simply over three seconds in what would show to be his 91st and last F1 victory, with the younger Spaniard pipping the retiring German veteran to that yr’s crown.
2007: Drama for Hamilton in his rookie season
There would extra drama in China a yr later as rookie Lewis Hamilton arrived trying to defend his championship benefit over McLaren workforce mate Alonso – who had made the change from Renault – and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
Hamilton wowed all through his debut season, scoring a hatful of pole positions, wins and podiums, however that yr’s penultimate spherical flipped the title race on its head with one of the dramatic moments in Chinese language Grand Prix historical past.
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The race had began effectively for Hamilton as he led away from pole place within the moist and seemed set to increase his factors lead, just for his tyres to endure because the rain stopped and the observe dried up – the rear-right ultimately carrying all the way down to the canvas.
Hamilton was ultimately known as into the pits for a contemporary set of tyres, however catastrophe struck when he went too deep on the entry, slid into the gravel entice and ended his race there after which. It successfully handed the win to Raikkonen, who additionally went on to grab the title.
2009: Crimson Bull’s maiden pole, win and one-two
An all-new set of technical rules for the 2009 season noticed Brawn GP – who had taken over the cancelled Honda works effort – emerge as the category of the sphere with a design spearheaded by their intelligent double diffuser innovation.
It meant the Brackley operation and Jenson Button romped to victory at six of the opening seven races, with Rubens Barrichello backing up the Briton for one-two finishes on three of these weekends.
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The blip got here on the Shanghai Worldwide Circuit, the place Crimson Bull charged their approach to first and third on the grid with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber within the dry and made {that a} breakthrough one-two forward of Button amid heavy rain on race day.
It marked the primary of Crimson Bull’s 99 poles and 116 wins up to now and, whereas they narrowly missed out on championship glory that yr after piling the stress on Brawn, their first titles had been simply across the nook – a run of 4 successive doubles coming from 2010 to 2013.
2012: First win of Mercedes’ trophy-filled new period
Following on from Crimson Bull effectively and actually marking their F1 arrival in China in 2009, it was Mercedes’ flip to take action on the 2012 occasion through an emphatic show from Nico Rosberg.
Mercedes had beforehand competed in F1 throughout the Nineteen Fifties, successful loads of races and a pair of drivers’ titles with Juan Manuel Fangio, solely to withdraw from motorsport within the wake of the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans catastrophe.
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Quick ahead to 2010 and, having already returned to F1 as an engine provider, Mercedes determined the time was proper to make a full-scale comeback, taking up the aforementioned Brawn entry and signing an all-German line-up of returning world champion Schumacher and rising star Rosberg.
A few years into that return, Rosberg mastered the Pirelli tyres at Shanghai to ship a sensational pole lap after which double up with a commanding victory a day later – giving the Silver Arrows the primary pole and win of their return.
Far more, as we now know, would comply with for Mercedes when F1’s turbo-hybrid period acquired below method in 2014…
2019: Formulation 1’s one thousandth Grand Prix
F1 celebrated a milestone event on the 2019 working of the Chinese language Grand Prix, with the nation enjoying host to the one thousandth race within the sport’s grand historical past.
It got here just below 69 years on from the first-ever encounter at Silverstone in 1950, a yr that hosted seven rounds (most held in Europe) in comparison with the 21 staged world wide by way of 2019 – highlighting how a lot the calendar has expanded and diversified through the years.
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It was a straight combat between Mercedes workforce mates Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas throughout the weekend, beginning with the Finn claiming pole by simply 0.023s earlier than the Briton pounced at the beginning and by no means seemed again to take the chequered flag by six-and-a-half seconds.
Now, after a five-year absence, China and the favored Shanghai venue return to the F1 roster for what guarantees to be one other action-packed Dash weekend.
