Oscar Piastri converts pole position to victory to take his first victory of the 2025 season at the Chinese Grand Prix.
George Russell got a good launch of the start, and threatened to take the lead heading into turn 1. Piastri, however, was braver on the brakes, and was able to sweep around the outside to stay ahead.
Russell appeared to be pinched on the inside, as Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris followed him around the outside, pushing Russell down to third Russell had attempted to fight back in the middle portion of the opening lap, but had to settle for staying behind.
The two Ferraris had a minor collision in the opening corners as well, which left Charles Leclerc with minor front wing damage that he would have to live with for the entire race.
The two Kick Saubers had trouble on the opening lap. Hulkenberg suffered a loss of traction that caused him to lose a number of positions, while Bortoleto had spun into the gravel, dropping him to last place.
On lap 4, Fernando Alonso was forced to retire from the race to an issue with his Aston Martin’s brakes, making it two DNF’s in two races for the Spaniard.
The first round of pit stops came rather early on, as the two stop strategy was seemingly going to be in the order of the day. Antonelli found himself getting undercut by the Racing Bulls of Yuki Tsunoda, followed by being overtaken on track by the Haas of Esteban Ocon. The 18-year-old would get stuck in the middle of a DRS train, finding it difficult to overtake slower cars.
Lando Norris was another driver undercut in the flurry of pitstops, with George Russell regaining second place. George Russell’s gain was only short lived though, as Norris would retake the position only a couple of laps later.
Charles Leclerc appeared to be putting in a strong performance despite his car’s damage, to the point where Hamilton was instructed to let his teammate pass on lap 21. He would begin to challenge Russell for third place, but would eventually fall back.
Ollie Bearman would pit for medium tyres in the middle portion of the race, which would provide him with some impressive pace, even if it was for the time at the back of the field. He first performed a switchback move on the struggling Liam Lawson at turn 14, leaving him behind with a cheeky comment of “ciao”.
Bearman would perform the same move at the same corner just a couple of laps later on Jack Doohan, exuding confidence in his newer, softer tyres. A couple of laps after that, a simple dive on the inside of Carlos Sainz would net him another position.
Cars had begun to pit once again for a second stop, such as the Racing Bulls and Lewis Hamilton, who was starting to fall under threat from Max Verstappen. Despite the early first stops, the hard tyres appeared durable enough and fast enough to consider heading to the end on a one stop.
The two stop would prove to be the wrong call, as the Racing Bulls found themselves languishing far outside the points, and Hamilton, while gaining, was not doing so by enough of a margin to gain any positions by the end of the race.
Bearman would try the switchback once again, this time on Pierre Gasly, but the Frenchman was able to defend it. However, the pace of Bearman was too strong, as the Haas driver gained another place before even reaching turn 1 as he finally climbed his way into a points paying position.
With 10 laps to go, Tsunoda suffered a bizarre issue as his front wing appeared to break for no apparent reason, turning what had already become a bad result into an even worse one.
The other Racing Bulls driver of Isack Hadjar had been trying to get past Jack Doohan, with the Alpine defending rather well until he locked up into turn 14, forcing Hadjar wide, and earning himself a 10 second penalty.
Norris was beginning to suffer an issue with his brakes as they started to go long. The issue appeared to get worse throughout the last portion of the race, as the Brit began to bleed time in the final couple of laps to Russell behind. Though the McLaren was able to keep second place, had the race gone on one lap longer he would have surely had to settle for third.
Verstappen was also chasing down Leclerc for fourth in the dying laps, having a lot more pace than he did in the opening section of the race. Verstappen would get the move completed on lap 53, flying around the outside of turn 2.
Piastri takes his first win of the season to complete what had been a strong weekend for the young Australian following a disappointing end to his home race last week. Norris maintains the lead of the driver’s championship, 8 points ahead of Verstappen, 9 points ahead of Russell and 10 points ahead of Piastri.
The next race is the Japanese Grand Prix, which takes place in two weeks time on April 6.
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