McLaren’s Oscar Piastri scored a dominant victory in the Chinese Grand Prix after starting from pole for the first time in his Formula One career and controlling the race from the front.
The result never really seemed in doubt, with Piastri cruising to the win, while managing his tires, in the 56-lap race to take his third career victory, while delivering a 50th 1-2 finish for McLaren.
“It’s been an incredible weekend from start to finish,” said Piastri, who finished 9.748 seconds ahead of teammate Lando Norris. “I think today was a bit of a surprise with how different the tires behaved, but just proud of the whole weekend. The team did an amazing job, 1-2 obviously, so very, very happy.
“I still had to push and keep my foot on the gas, because the gap, apart from the last few laps, was never that big behind. So I always had to keep on my toes, but I feel like I just managed the race well when I needed to, and pushed when I needed to. So yeah, just very happy with how the whole weekend’s turned out.”
Piastri also took his first Grand Prix pole on Saturday — and McLaren’s third in a row going back to the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix — just 0.082 seconds ahead of a surprising George Russell in the Mercedes, who split the two McLarens by topping Norris by 0.07 seconds in qualifying.
A late brake issue for Norris not only allowed Piastri to widen the gap at the finish but also made it interesting with third-place driver Russell trying desperately to catch the slowing McLaren on the final two laps, after not being able to make any dent in the McLaren’s lead for most of the race. In the end, Norris barely made it home second, crossing the line just 1.349 seconds ahead, but would have lost the spot had the race went another lap.
“You know, whenever I have a nightmare, it’s when the brakes are failing,” Norris said after the race. “I was losing two, three, four seconds the last couple of laps, so I was a bit scared, but we survived and we made it to the end. I would have loved to have given it a little try and put Oscar under a little bit of pressure, but not today.”
After two races, Norris leads the drivers standing with 44 points, followed by reigning four-time world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull second, at 36 points, and Mercedes driver George Russell third, with 35. Piastri’s win moved him up to fourth in driver points, with 34. On the constructor side, McLaren leads with 78 points, followed by Mercedes at 57 and Red Bull at 36.
While he finished third, Russell felt like he enjoyed one of the best F1 weekends of his career, despite running in McLaren’s dust for most of the Grand Prix.
“Really happy with qualifying yesterday, getting in between the McLarens,” said Russell. “And then the race today was really strong. Called it pretty early about the one-stop and it was a bit frustrating, it was so clear in the end because I was hoping those guys ahead would have gone onto the two-stop.
“We’re trying our best to catch McLaren — these guys are doing an amazing job and for us to end up quite a bit ahead of Max [Verstappen of Red Bull] and the Ferraris right now, that’s a great result.”
In reality, Piastri, Norris and McLaren look to be runaway champions after two easy wins in two races, with Norris taking the victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix last weekend.
In China, Piastri got a good launch when the lights went out, but needed to defend against an even better starting Russell, from second on the grid; he pushed him to the inside, which helped Norris get a run on the outside to jump into second.
A few places behind, Ferrari teammates Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc came together at the exit of Turn 1, with the latter losing the left endplate of his front wing.
Leader Piastri pitted for fresh rubber at the end of Lap 14, with Russell also coming in. Norris took a new set of tires on the next lap and came out behind Russell, but re-took the spot three laps later with a pass at the end of the front straight.
From there, the race turned into a parade, with little action at the front until Norris’ brake problem. The only other excitement in the Top-5 came when Verstappen found some extra speed late in the race to challenge Leclerc for fourth, getting past with three laps to go.
The scarlet cars stayed glued to each other for most of the race and Leclerc and Hamilton crossed the line fifth and sixth, but both cars failed post-race inspection.
Leclerc’s car tipped the scales at 799 kilograms and did not meet the 800kg minimum weight, while Hamilton’s plank did not meet the 9 millimetre minimum thickness in any of the three measurements, missing the left and centre minimum by 0.4mm and the right by 0.5mm. The Alpine of Pierre Gasly came in 1.1kg light and he lost his 11th-place finish.
The exclusions to Ferrari gave Esteban Ocon a Top-5 finish and saw both Haas cars score points, after rookie Oliver Bearman crossed the line 10th and moved to eighth. Removing both Ferraris also pushed Canadian Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin into the points, in ninth, and ensured both Williams scored as Carlos Sainz moved up to 10th, while teammate Alex Albon ended the day seventh after taking the checkered flag ninth.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso suffered the only retirement after he stopped just four laps into the race, with a right-rear brake fire.
On Saturday, Hamilton took his first victory in an F1 Sprint race and the first sprint win for Ferrari in his second Grand Prix weekend with his new team. The seven-time world champion also started on a sprint pole for the first time and led the 19-lap race from start to finish. He ended the sprint 6.899 seconds ahead of Piastri, with Verstappen third, another 2.915 seconds back.
“Getting my first sprint pole and then win in a Ferrari was such a special feeling,” said Hamilton. “The car felt strong and we managed to bring everything together to cross the line first and bring home some good points for the team.
“The taste of winning has made us all even hungrier.”
Verstappen tried to challenge Hamilton early but faded and slowly fell into the clutches of Piastri, who got past for second at the end of the long Shanghai back straight on Lap 15.
