Oscar Piastri delivered a commanding performance at the Chinese Grand Prix, leading teammate Lando Norris to a McLaren 1-2 finish and giving the team a sweep of the Formula One season’s first two races. But Piastri’s drive was soon overshadowed by the post-race disqualification of Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton, who had finished sixth, was disqualified for a technical infringement on his Ferrari, while Leclerc — who had crossed the line fifth — was punished for his car being underweight, as was Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
Piastri, who made a mistake that cost him the win at the Australian GP last week, capitalized on clean air in Shanghai to steadily build his advantage as the race evolved into a strategic battle between one and two-stop strategies. Behind the McLarens, Mercedes’ George Russell secured the final podium position.
Verstappen, who had a rough start, never recovered the pace needed to challenge the frontrunners and finished fourth, highlighting Red Bull’s unexpected struggles this weekend. Further down the order, Williams’ Alex Albon executed an alternative strategy on his birthday, briefly leading the race, while both Haas cars secured points.
The Athletic’s experts Luke Smith (from Shanghai) and Madeline Coleman break down the season’s second race.
Piastri’s comfortable win points to McLaren’s advantage
It wasn’t quite the dramatic margin of victory we would likely have seen in Australia last weekend without the mid-race safety car or the rain, but a dry race helped McLaren flex its advantage over its rivals.
A fuss-free, commanding 1-2 finish led by Piastri proved the papaya cars are going to be incredibly hard to beat in the early part of this season. There was a brief moment when Russell managed to get amongst them after the first round of stops, only for Norris to quickly gain the place back a couple of laps later.
The biggest moment of McLaren stress came at the very end of the race when Norris reported his brake pedal was going long. His engineer, Will Joseph, also warned against pushing too hard in the closing stages to try to make a last-ditch effort to catch Piastri and risk throwing away a comfortable second-place finish.
From Saturday qualifying onwards, this has been Piastri domination. Norris paid the price for small mistakes in qualifying and the sprint, but Piastri didn’t skip a beat. In a similar fashion to his first two F1 victories in Hungary and Azerbaijan last year, this was a win taken with real class and control.
McLaren is a step ahead of its rivals right now. At least the competition between its drivers will keep things very, very interesting.
Luke Smith
Hamilton’s second Ferrari weekend was a step forward
Off the high of his sprint pole and victory for Ferrari, things went a little less successfully for Lewis Hamilton through the remainder of his weekend, to the extend that it ended disastrously.
He started well to jump Verstappen off the line and narrowly avoided being taken out by Leclerc, whose graze of Hamilton’s car left him with a broken front wing endplate. Lacking an estimated 20 to 30 points of downforce, according to his race engineer, Leclerc was still quicker — to the point he swapped places with his teammate. Once Leclerc got the move done, he immediately pulled a second clear, proving he had the pace advantage.
The extra stop for Hamilton cost him a spot to Verstappen in the final stint, the five cars ahead of him all making it home with just one change of tires.
News of the technical infringement, with the thickness of one of the skid blocks on his car found to be below the required standard, meant eight points vanished to zero. China will still go down as a step forward for Hamilton thanks to the strength of his sprint display, but this disappointing ending means he has just nine points to show from his first two races of the year.
Luke Smith
The battle for ‘best of the rest’ heats up
Heading into the weekend, Williams held a two-point lead over Aston Martin for the coveted ‘best of the rest’ spot. However, the Racing Bulls duo of Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda qualified within the top 10, putting them in a prime position to potentially leap over Sauber, Aston Martin and Williams in the standings.
But Albon is a tire whisperer. While other drivers saw their tires dropping off early in the race, the Williams driver, who qualified 10th, stayed out and even led at one point, finally pitting at around Lap 21. His promotion from ninth to seventh thanks to Hamilton and Leclerc’s disqualifications are crucial for Williams, as will the point Carlos Sainz gained in being promoted to 10th post-race.
Williams is fourth in the constructors’ standings on 17 points and these could be significant gains come the end of the season, especially since Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished with just two points and Fernando Alonso suffered a second consecutive DNF, leaving the team seventh on 10 points.
The Racing Bulls drivers tumbled outside the points Sunday. Tsunoda’s front wing was damaged by Lap 47, forcing him to pit. Haas, which now has a combined haul of 14 points, became the surprise team, a stark contrast to Australia where the team lacked pace.
Madeline Coleman
Hold your judgment on the rookies for now
Just as Norris cautioned it was too early to discuss leading the championship standings, it is also too early to judge the rookies, as China marked round two of 24 — and a sprint race weekend at that — while the disqualifications added gloss to many of their results.
Hadjar may have been the highest-finishing rookie in grand prix qualifying, but Kimi Antonelli quickly became the strongest again during the race, similar to Australia. By lap 10, the Mercedes driver sat seventh while Hadjar had dropped to ninth, ultimately finishing 11th. In the end, Antonelli was the top rookie, in eighth initially before being promoted to sixth on the back of the disqualifications.
Ollie Bearman’s performance, bouncing back from a rough weekend in Australia, is worth noting. He executed a strong overtake on Liam Lawson, saying “ciao” on the radio as he passed the Red Bull, and later passed Carlos Sainz. By Lap 39, he was on Gasly’s tail. The camera caught his father cheering inside the Haas garage when Bearman passed the Alpine and got into points. Once the dust had settled, Bearman finished eighth on four points.
Gabriel Bortoleto ended up in the gravel early and though the Sauber driver did rejoin the race, he faced a significant amount of time to catch up to the pack. On lap 35, he set the fastest lap from P19, but he finished the race 14th.
It wasn’t a great finish for the other rookies, either. Jack Doohan received a 10-second time penalty after an incident with Hadjar, forcing the Racing Bulls driver off the track, and Lawson, who has been facing questions after his recent performances, didn’t have a particularly strong day again.
Madeline Coleman
Drivers’ standings
- Lando Norris (McLaren) — 44 points
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull) — 36 points
- George Russell (Mercedes) — 35 points
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren) — 34 points
- Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) — 22 points
- Alex Albon (Williams) — 16 points
- Esteban Ocon (Haas) — 10 points
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) — 10 points
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) — 9 points
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) — 8 points
Constructors’ standings
- McLaren — 78 points
- Mercedes — 57 points
- Red Bull — 36 points
- Williams — 17 points
- Ferrari — 17 points
- Haas — 14 points
- Aston Martin — 10 points
- Sauber — 6 points
- Racing Bulls — 3 points
- Alpine — 0 points
(Top photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images)
