Oscar Piastri beat team-mate Lando Norris as McLaren sealed a dominant one-two at the Chinese Grand Prix
Pole-sitter Piastri never looked like relinquishing the win, the third of his F1 career, and made the perfect response after spinning last weekend at his home event in Melbourne.
Norris was given a scare in the closing laps due to a brake problem but held onto second from Russell, who made it back-to-back podiums to start the season in third.
Max Verstappen overtook Charles Leclerc for fourth in a great battle in the latter stages of the Grand Prix to limit the damage and is eight points behind Norris in the F1 Drivers’ Championship.
Lewis Hamilton finished in a lonely sixth as he was unable to make the two-stop race work compared to the other front-runners on a one-stop.
Having won Saturday’s Sprint, Hamilton was expected to contend for the top spots but rarely showed great pace and was asked to let Leclerc through early in the race
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It was an exciting start to the Chinese GP with Charles Leclerc losing his left front wing after clipping Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton!
The Ferrari duo made contact on the opening lap and Leclerc damaged his front wing but it did not affect his pace.
Esteban Ocon scored his first points for Haas in seventh, ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Williams’ Alex Albon in ninth.
British teenager Oliver Bearman impressively charged through the field in the second half of the race on an alternative strategy to take the final point in 10th.
Piastri cruises to victory as Norris overcomes brake issues
Aside from the pit stop phase, Piastri led every lap of the Chinese Grand Prix and showed why he is a title contender this year.
He helped team-mate Norris by squeezing Russell down to Turn 1, which allowed Norris to sweep around the outside and move into second place with everyone aware of the importance of track position in Shanghai.
Norris was undercut by Russell though during the first, and only, pit stops for the leaders but the McLaren driver quickly got back into second place with a move down the inside into the first corner.
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Lando Norris, George Russell and Lance Stroll had a three-way battle for position from lap 16-18 of the Chinese GP
At one point, Norris was making inroads into his five-second deficit to Piastri before he was encouraged to manage his tyres so never got within two seconds of the Australian.
In the final six laps, Norris told the team he was suffering from a “long pedal” due to a brake issue so he backed off but had enough of a margin to fend off Russell by 1.3 seconds.
Reigning world champion Verstappen maximised the performance of his car again in fourth when it looked like he was going to be sixth.
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Yuki Tsunoda’s front wing snapped out of nowhere on a straight, dropping him to the back of the pack during the Chinese GP
After Hamilton decided to pit for a second time, Verstappen moved up to fifth and caught Leclerc before overtaking him with a stunning move around the outside at Turn 3.
Formula 1 heads to the iconic Suzuka Circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix on April 4-6, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – No contract, cancel anytime
