Chinese GP: Oscar Piastri wins as dominant McLaren claim one-two
SHANGHAI — Oscar Piastri beat teammate Lando Norris to victory at the Chinese Grand Prix as McLaren continued to look a cut above the competition at the second round of the new Formula 1 season.
In a grand prix that revolved around tyre management, Piastri held the lead from pole position at the start of the race and then cruised to victory over a one-stop strategy.
The win followed a disappointing season-opener for Piastri after he spun out of second place at his home race in Australia one week ago.
“The car was very lovely and good work on reacting to the [tyre] deg,” Piastri told his team over the radio after the chequered flag. “Good team effort, that is one very satisfying weekend.”
Norris finished 9.7 seconds behind his McLaren teammate after struggling with a brake pedal issue in the final laps of the race.
The British driver, who still leads the championship by virtue of his race win at the season-opener, never got close to challenging Piastri for victory and instead had to repass George Russell for second place after losing a place to the Mercedes in the pit stops.
Russell secured the final place on the podium and with it moved up to second place in the championship, one point ahead of Piastri and nine points behind Norris.
The Mercedes driver lost second place to Norris at the start, briefly regained the position after the first round of pit stops, but did not have the pace to hold off Norris at Turn 1 on Lap 18.
Max Verstappen secured fourth place for Red Bull after overtaking Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for the position with three laps remaining. Verstappen started fourth but lost places to both Ferrari drivers on the opening lap before fighting back from sixth.
Leclerc, who finished fifth, lost part of his front wing on the opening lap in a minor collision with teammate Lewis Hamilton. Leclerc and Hamilton passed Verstappen in the first corner of the first lap, but as Leclerc dived to the inside of Turn 3, he clipped the right rear tyre of Hamilton.
Despite the damage, Leclerc looked faster than Hamilton in the opening phase of the race and Ferrari eventually asked their drivers to swap position on Lap 21, despite Hamilton initially asking to delay the team order.
Clearly struggling with tyre management, Hamilton opted for a two-stop strategy while the five cars ahead of him completed the distance with just one tyre change. The alternative approach made little difference at the end, with Hamilton finishing just 2.1 seconds behind Leclerc.
Just one week after Haas looked like the slowest team in the field in Australia, Esteban Ocon secured seventh place in China ahead of the second Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli in eighth.
Alex Albon secured two points for Williams in ninth ahead of the second Haas of Oliver Bearman, who adopted an alternative strategy and moved through the field in the second half of the race to take tenth place.
Source: espn.com