Oscar Piastri led a one-two for McLaren in the Chinese Grand Prix, but the team suffered a scare on his team mate’s car in the final laps.
Lando Norris nursed his MCL39 around the final laps, losing several seconds to his team mate, as he managed a problem with his brakes. Despite increasingly urgent warnings from his race engineer Will Joseph, Norris hung on to complete a one-two for the team.George Russell completed the podium, closing to little more than a second behind Norris at the flag. He lost second place to Norris at the start, briefly reclaimed it following their sole pit stops, but the McLaren driver repassed him in the DRS zone shortly afterwards.
The Ferrari drivers ran ahead of Max Verstappen early in the race but the Red Bull driver got past both of them before the end. He passed Charles Leclerc on-track, and gained a place from Lewis Hamilton, who fell to sixth place after making a second pit stop.
Following pre-race concerns about how well the tyres would perform, the hard rubber proved resilient enough for most drivers to make a single pit stop. Hamilton was the only driver among the first 13 finishers to pit twice.
Racing Bulls put both their drivers on two-stop strategies, which meant neither driver scored, having started inside the top 10. Yuki Tsunoda had to pit a third time after a front wing end plate failed and Isack Hadjar was frustrated by Jack Doohan, who was given a 10-second time penalty for forcing his rival off the track.
Haas enjoyed a welcome turnaround in pace following their poor start to the weekend in Australia. Esteban Ocon took seventh while Oliver Bearman, one of few drivers to start the race on the hard tyres, passed a string of rivals on his way to the final point.
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They were separated by Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who lost time when Tsunoda jumped ahead of him when they pitted, and Alexander Albon, who briefly led the race on his birthday by running a long first stint on the medium compound.
Fernando Alonso was the only driver to retire from the race as he suffered a brake fire in the early stages. His team mate Lance Stroll ran the longest first stint of all but eventually slipped back to 12th behind Pierre Gasly.
Liam Lawson started from the pit lane after qualifying last, but struggled to make progress and finished 15th, 20 seconds away from the points places.
Second place for Norris means he has increased his lead in the drivers’ championship to eight points over Verstappen. McLaren lead Mercedes by 29 points in the constructors’ standings.
Update: Official: Leclerc and Gasly disqualified over technical infringements
This article will be updated.
2025 Chinese Grand Prix
- Red Bull reassure Verstappen over ‘when we’ll have a winning car again’ in meeting
- Mercedes explain impact of Antonelli’s floor damage on his Chinese GP performance
- “I gave a lot of lap time away in that first stint”: Verstappen’s full Chinese GP radio
- Stats: Chinese Grand Prix saw most disqualifications in an F1 race for 21 years
- Even the best driver on the grid needs a team mate to push them – Norris
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
23rd March 2025, 8:58
The Pirelli tyre management special.
Jere (@jerejj)
23rd March 2025, 8:58
The race initially seemed to be a procession, but ultimately differing strategies gave some exciting racing throughout the field, especially further down.
A great controlled victory drive by Piastri with Haas being a positive surprise, while Sauber had their turn to be the outright slowest team, especially Hulkenberg.
Questionable defending by Doohan, though.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
23rd March 2025, 9:03
This race not at all silenced Lewis critics.
Just goes to show sprint races are meaningless in every possible way, specially here that was such a tyre limited race.
Recar
23rd March 2025, 9:16
He does have a way of saying the wrong thing. Not as bad as “my team doesn’t make mistakes” in 2022 but that pole and win yesterday clearly went to his head.
He’s had a dose of reality again today with another dismal performance.
The whole” I don’t know this car” argument can’t be used anymore because he managed fine in qualifying and the sprint. So what’s his excuse going to be today for finishing behind Leclerc in a badly damaged car.
Riccard
23rd March 2025, 9:55
I don’t think the difference between the races means that the first race was meaningless. They were independent races (and the sprint win clearly meant a lot to Hamilton and his fan base).
In the first race, McLaren messed up their quali strategy, so their cars were out of contention. In the second race, they qualified at the front, and won it.
Meanwhile Hamilton seems to run relatively better with clean air and low fuel than dirty air and high fuel.
It just goes to show that strategy and execution can still decide F1 races when when the machinery is consistent.
Doggy
23rd March 2025, 13:31
I agree. Had Lando not Bottled both of his sprint quali, he would have been in pole by over 0.1.
Both McLaren are clear of the rest. The MCL39, performance wise, is at the same level as the redbull in the first 2 races last year.
erikje (@erikje)
23rd March 2025, 9:59
Nah I think it’s been a solid weekend from Hamilton and he’s shown some moments of brilliance.
He’s out-qualified Leclerc twice in only his second race weekend. He was also incredible in the sprint.
I think Ferrari hit the ground running and had the strongest setup for the sprint part of the weekend. Once the other teams gained data from the sprint they were able to improve but Ferrari were already at their limit.
Coming into this weekend it was clear that Ferrari were 4th fastest. Today’s result is just a realistic reflection of their pace right now.
In Hamilton’s first dry race for Ferrari he was only 2-3 seconds off Leclerc for most of the race. That’s a pretty good effort to be honest.
safeeuropeanhome (@debaser91)
23rd March 2025, 10:28
Well, 1) Leclerc’s front wing was damaged from corner one, lap one, that surely must have cost performance. And he was still all over Hamilton’s rear wing for several laps.
And 2) Lewis got the undercut by pitting first, which was strong here as other drivers showed. and he barely came out in front of Charles. So clearly he wasn’t confident pushing on new tyres after the stop.
Although I agree that on the whole there were positive signs for Lewis this weekend, the quali pace being good is a real plus, especially after last season against Russell being so disappointing. Normally if he qualifies in the top 5 he has a decent race so that is a good starting point. He seemed to be having problems with the car on high fuel. With a couple more races I hope he’ll get on top of it, with his experience I’m sure he’ll find a way.
erikje (@erikje)
23rd March 2025, 12:25
It didn’t cost him that much. Ferrari can see the data and choose not to replace it, meaning the impact was less than 5 seconds over the race distance. Weirdly I think it helped take some load off the front left which was the tyre everyone was struggling with.
Race pace and tyre wear are the hardest thing to manage in F1 so I still see this as a very solid effort for only his second race with the team. Like you say, once he gets fully on top of that I think he’ll be just fine.
I’d still say he’s silenced critics this weekend as I’d seen a lot about how he’ll easily be out qualified by Leclerc, yet he managed to beat him twice and take an impressive sprint win in the 4th fastest car.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd March 2025, 14:23
Mmmm, I find it a bit exaggerated to say that if they don’t replace it, it must’ve cost 5 sec or less; you lose 20 sec with an early pit stop and end up stuck in traffic sometimes, so it could potentially have been more than 10 sec and still they decided to not pit.
Having said this, typically such pieces missing from the front wing make you lose negligible time indeed.
Edvaldo
23rd March 2025, 16:06
It must have been very minimal.
In Silverstone ’22 Leclerc lost the endplate and was equally faster than Sainz.
BMW P85 V10
23rd March 2025, 18:01
3 This effort was made with a car that ran to low at the ground. So the car performed a nudge better than it would perform is the ground clearance wasn’t to low.
An Sionnach
24th March 2025, 9:01
Let’s give it six more races.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
23rd March 2025, 9:10
McLaren: Norris flashes of brilliance but a really poorly weekend overall. 2nd, is a good recovery. Piastri looked effortless. Should really be back to back 1-2s. Ominous. .
Mercedes: Russell, beat Ferrari and Max when the car probably wasn’t better than them over the course of the weekend. Antonelli, solid, what I expect – let’s dial down the hype.
Red Bull: Max driving well, Lawson appalling. Worrying performance deficit between low and high fuel
Ferrari: Hamilton great in the sprint but struggles on high fuel long run, Charles did well to drive round the damage. Seems another weekend where the maximum potential wasn’t achieved
Aston: Stroll on the counter strategy seemed to work. Alonso out early. Untidy weekends this season from Alonso, poor in the sprint, roughly level with Stroll all other times
Williams: Albon with a strong weekend. Carlos not dialled into the car yet. Looked off it all weekend.
Haas: huge performance swing. Great drive from Ocon and good strategy and overtakes from Bearman albeit poor quali
Sauber: really poor. Hulk good quali, car terrible in race. Gabriel with an early spin, 2 in 2 races – needs to tidy up
Racing Bulls: unbelievable quali. Car looked great but strategic error cost them. Tsunoda unlucky with wing damage but messed up his quali anyway.
Alpine: Gasly doing fine very long stint, Doohan didn’t need a couple of scrapes and a penalty
An Sionnach
23rd March 2025, 12:10
Sums it up. Max may have made a mistake going aggressive into the first turn and then being passed by the Ferraris. Could he have gotten third had he been further up the road in the closing stages? Going around the outside isn’t a bad idea, though. With five on the inside, a collision could mean retirements. That did happen, but luckily the Ferraris got away with it.
Can Hulkenberg just do the qualifying and leave the races to a couple of monkeys with typewriters in a trench coat?!?
Norris did well to pocket so many points on an off-weekend. If it continues to be tight, the winner might come from the Lauda-Piquet-Prost school of point collecting. George coming third in every race and going for pleasant countryside drives on his lonesome each Sunday, while all manner of drama unfolds everywhere else?
Doggy
23rd March 2025, 13:36
There is no way Max could have finished 3th. Regardless of staying ahead or behind Ferrari.
It’s not like he got held by CL and/or LH. He dropped off after lap 1. Max was actually holding Antonelli instead, which is pretty bad.
An Sionnach
23rd March 2025, 13:49
I haven’t looked at it in much detail. I’m being overly-critical, of course. A lot of these things happen in seconds and at high speeds, so very fine lines can determine whether or not something works out.
Frustrating to see Max without the machinery. Not that I want to see him win ten world championships, but it would be nice if it doesn’t turn out to be a cakewalk for the McLaren boys.
I don’t think any one driver can expect to always have the best car, but it’s a shame when drivers like Lewis and Max are not involved in the championship competition. Let’s see how it goes for Lewis.
Doggy
23rd March 2025, 14:18
I fully agree with your sentiment.
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
23rd March 2025, 9:22
Always threatens to be a good race but rarely delivers. These tyres are an appalling joke.
El Pollo Loco
23rd March 2025, 10:15
The one time we want them to hit a cliff and act like the crap they are, they act more like an actual race tire. Maybe this can become a good thing if the tires are consistently durable for them to run hard for an entire stints. However, no one really even seemed to be pushing very hard beside Leclerc when he was chasing Russell down. They all mainly seemed to be cruising around protecting their tires.
Edvaldo
23rd March 2025, 15:03
In 2012, the tyres did that. Raikkonen was going long on his and lost 10 positions in a lap towards the end of the race, but now they hang in there, slightly slower, to the point that brand-new tyres aren’t even that much faster.
If everybody is nursing tyres and a two-stopper is the losing strategy, we’re having a very boring race.
MichaelN
23rd March 2025, 10:36
F1 has been nursing tyres, being multiple seconds off the pace, for over a decade. And since the tyre compounds are so similar nobody bothers with more stops unless they’re desperate.
As problematic as some aspects of the cars are, the tyres are by far the biggest problem. It’s awful.
El Pollo Loco
23rd March 2025, 10:11
An experienced fans, and I mean this literally, could call better race strategies than RB. They’ve cost Yuki, what, an easy P5 and now an easy P7. Just unbelievable. Ocon, Kimi, Albon and Bearman are real lucky RB seems to have no idea what it’s doing.
RB strat was bad last year, but their calls came under a bit more tricky circumstances. This time around they’re just making obviously horrible calls.
David (@nvherman)
23rd March 2025, 11:21
Please can everyone go back to referring to the Racing Bulls as VCARB again?
RB is too similar to Red Bull (who I realise are actually Red Bull Racing: RBR)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
23rd March 2025, 21:34
They’ve never had that as their chassis name (i.e. ‘proper name’) so we’ve never called them that. But I agree ‘Racing Bulls’ is far too close to ‘Red Bull’, which is presumably why they’ve done it. Why they had to do the round-the-houses bit of being RB last year and then changing is a mystery, albeit a very dull one which presumably has a marketing explanation.
David (@nvherman)
23rd March 2025, 21:49
I can’t be the only one who wishes they’d stuck with calling themselves Toro Rosso, can I? I mean, we all knew that’s just the Italian for Red Bull anyway
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd March 2025, 14:27
The main team should lend them a strategist, or give them lessons!
MXMXD (@mxmxd)
23rd March 2025, 15:25
That makes two easy P5 now.
RH
23rd March 2025, 11:31
Ferraris just got disqualified. Explains their sprint pace I guess. Low fuel close to the ground. Going to be a nightmare if the car has to risk with disqualification to run close to the ground.
BMW P85 V10
23rd March 2025, 18:08
Plank wear isn’t that big of an issue during a sprint race, so they definitely ran lower. maybe they forgot to put Lewis’ car higher for the main race.
RH
26th March 2025, 21:03
That also causes loss of downforce and pace. Ferrari car is very sensitive to ride height more than others it would appear.
Edvaldo
23rd March 2025, 14:06
Really dull race in which very little happened.
Doggy
23rd March 2025, 14:21
Rumor has it that F1 will announce next year they will add another 5 DRS zones to make it more exciting. And I 20 years they will consider changing tire durability and compounds
An Sionnach
23rd March 2025, 14:26
I found this one a bit dull. Liked Max’s overtaking manoeuvre on Leclerc, even if he was very obviously much faster at the time. Kept out and didn’t let the car in front of him slow him down so he could carry his speed. Usually give even the most paint-dryingly dull races my full attention, but didn’t this time due to no fault of the race. That’s a warning firmly attached to my analysis of this one!
What else? Felt frustrated watching Hadjar behind Doohan. If they are to continue to issue these little non-stop-go penalties, perhaps the blue flags should be waved once someone has received a penalty related to unfairly keeping an opponent behind them?
Did I miss something about Antonelli? He got voted driver of the day, but was lucky RB strategy seems to help everyone else more than themselves.
I’m very pleasantly surprised by Albon so far. I take back what I said – you’re back in the good books.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd March 2025, 14:31
I didn’t see antonelli voted DOTD, but it’s ridiculous, it was a bad performance by him, beaten by a haas and well off russell: not lawson’s level of bad, but below expectations.
I also found the race dull, and liked verstappen’s overtake, was an unusual move.
Albon is surprisingly doing better than sainz, but I think it’s more like sainz not extracting as much from the williams as he was from the ferrari, and not albon being a top driver, the comparison with colapinto shows that.
An Sionnach
23rd March 2025, 14:45
You’re probably right, but I still feel I need to see more of Albon and am not sure how to rate him fairly!
I was hoping that we’d see Lewis chase down the McLarens, at least.
Leo B
23rd March 2025, 15:59
I said Piastri had to bag this one: he won it from pole.
Repeat this trick and McLaren will be his team alone.
David (@nvherman)
23rd March 2025, 19:47
You really are quite the optimist, aren’t you? Shanghai wasn’t great for Norris last season either, yet this year he still finished a place higher than he started (and with hardly any brakes for the last two laps). He did get the fastest lap though.
Looking at Suzuka last season, Norris out qualified Piastri by 3 places and almost 0.3s, and finished the race 3 places ahead as well. We’ll just have to see if that’s repeated
anon
23rd March 2025, 21:50
@nvherman it could also be noted that Shanghai was also one of Piastri’s stronger circuits in 2024, at least in the sprint sessions and qualifying, yet it was Norris that had the stronger performances over the course of the season.
David B
23rd March 2025, 19:48
I’ve not missed a race in over 20yrs. I would’ve rather watched paint dry then that race. Utterly boring.