Oscar Piastri put on a race winning show at the Shanghai International circuit to redeem himself following the Melbourne spin out. Piastri, who took pole in qualifying, clinched his third F1 race win with an immaculate drive where he led every single lap while navigating both his teammate Lando Norris and Mercedes’ George Russell.
The two McLarens topped the race again as they executed their one pit-stop strategy to perfection. In fact, the top five race finishers—Piastri, Norris, Russell, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, all deployed a single pit stop strategy. Although it is to be noted that Lewis Hamilton, who finished P6 was the only driver in the Top 10 to use a second-stop strategy in the race.
With the two McLarens going neck-to-neck in the later stages of the race, it was Norris who had to hold back due to a braking issue. Even with last minute braking issues, RedBull and Ferrari finished 15 second behind race-winner Piastri. With two back-to-back podiums for McLaren, they are already 25 points ahead of Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship.
Defending World Champion, Max Verstappen, who started fourth continued his struggles from the Sprint race. The Dutch driver finished fourth, only a few seconds ahead of Leclerc, who was driving with a damaged front wing. While teammate Liam Lawson found himself out of the points as he finished 16th.
Rookies, Kimi Antonelli and Ollie Bearman, impressed with their drives finishing P8 and P10 respectively. Among the others, Alpine’s Jack Doohan had to face a penalty for pushing Racing Bull’s Isack Hadjar off the track, the two ended up finishing P16 and P14 respectively.
Meanwhile, Haas’ driver, Esterban Ocon, also found himself in the points with an impressive P7 finish behind the Ferrari duo. Even though Hamilton started off his weekend well, misfortune struck as the teammates made contact in the first lap, resulting in a damaged front wing for the Monegasque.
Following a chaotic Australia GP, the China GP turned out to be a crash-free race with hardly any incidents. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was the only driver to not finish the race following brake failure at the early stages of the race.