Piastri leads controlled McLaren 1-2 to win Chinese Grand Prix

While the sprint race still sprung a surprise, McLaren consolidated their role as favourites by finishing first and second at the Chinese Grand Prix. Oscar Piastri pretty much led the entire race as Norris controlled a brake pedal issue to finish second, just ahead of George Russell for Mercedes.

The start of the race saw Piastri fiercely defend his first position by going right to cut off Russell who seemed like having enjoyed the better getaway. This allowed the Australian to head first into the swooping first corner and continue in the lead throughout the beginning of the race.

Lando Norris meanwhile opted for the outside of Turn 1 which enabled a much faster entry speed and second place as a result. Russell did attempt to fight back later in the lap but then he was immediately threatened by Lewis Hamilton who, just like Leclerc, had enjoyed a strong start by passing Verstappen.

In the midfield it was soon clear that Alonso was struggling and Gasly increasingly challenging his 12th position. The Spaniard however was quick on the straights but he backed out of the fight on lap 5, returning to the pits with a brake problem.

Already since first practice teams and Pirelli were expecting graining issues today. Pirelli did raise the minimum tyre pressure yesterday as well and with the race's warmer conditions, many drivers are wary of the problem. Hamilton was the first to report the problem, leading to Leclerc getting closer to him despite the latter's damaged front wing that was missing the left endplate and scraping on the floor at high speeds.

On lap 11 we see the first pitstops, including tyre changes for Tsunoda and Ocon. Two laps later it's Antonelli who stops, rejoining the race in a train behind Tsunoda, hence virtually losing a position.

Another lap later, Hamilton and Verstappen make their switch to hard. Piastri pitted another lap later, immediately followed by Russell. Piastri returned to the track in 4th position, just ahead of Stroll. Russell was behind Bearman who he quickly passed a few corners into that out lap.

For Russell it was really a matter to also get past Stroll quickly. The Englishman did what he had to but got an extra complication when Norris emerged out of the pits into their paths. Russell did well however and kept Norris at bay before passing Stroll in Turn 4. Norris then used his McLaren's pace to come back, taking back Russell's position 2 laps down the road.

Leclerc had meanwhile also changed to hards, sending him once again right into the slipstream of Hamilton where he was sitting for pretty much the entire race thus far.

In front, Albon took the lead for a couple of laps before getting passed by Piastri. The Williams driver seemed happy to extend his first stint on mediums a bit and delayed his first stop until the end of lap 20.

While Albon was in the pit, Hamilton was told to swap cars, enabling Leclerc to get past at Turn 1. Lewis request Leclerc to be closer before doing it but eventually complied one lap after the order. Leclerc indeed looked faster and soon was on his way to distance Hamilton and close the gap to Russell who was 2 seconds ahead. Russell himself was also still only 2.5 seconds behind Norris.

Halfway into the race Norris was asked to up the pace a little bit but clearly Norris wasn't eager to do too much. By saying "Yeah but I don't want to be in the dirty air too quickly", he signalled he prefered leaving a bit of a gap to Piastri in front which at the time was around 3.3 seconds.

When Norris sped up he and turned out half a second a lap faster than Piastri he quickly requested his engineer to ask Piastri to speed up. Obviously the McLarens have a lot of speed in their pockets and are calmly managing the lead. Still, differing tyre wear between the two cars left them busy pondering the correct strategy, notably whether they could continue on this tyre until the end of the race.

Verstappen meanwhile upped his pace and edged ever closer to Hamilton, repeatedly gaining praise by Lambiase. Hamilton pitted before that was even DRS for Verstappen. The Ferrari driver lost only this one place to Verstappen and went on to set a couple of fastest laps on his fresh hard tyres.

The problem here seems to be the ability to overtake. None of the top drivers have managed to make any passes. In the midfield Bearman did show it was possible however if the tyre difference is big enough.

8 laps from the Tsunoda suddenly had a front wing failure on in Racing Bulls. Without touching anyone the right upper flap let go at the connection near the nose cone, requiring him to get off the pace and return to the pits. Tsunoda returned to the track dead last, 17 seconds behind Hulkenberg but on fresh medium tyres.

With 4 laps left Verstappen had closed the gap on Leclerc for fourth place. The latter repeatedly got some info from his engineer where he is losing most, but just like Hamilton it seems like he feels his engineer talks too much. One lap later Verstappen made a great pass on Leclerc through the curves of Turn 1, Turn 2 and Turn 3 where the Dutchman opted for the outside line on the fast entry and then switched to the inside before the corner turned left. The Red Bull has clearly enjoyed better tyre longevity.

Lando Norris on the other hand was unable to search for the win after an increasingly problematic long brake pedal issue emerged on his car. For about 10 laps he had been complaining about it until in the penultimate lap he reported the pedal was pretty much "going flat". Norris backed off considerably in the last laps to avoid any problems, leaving just 1.6s to Russell who finished in third place.