Piastri’s Shanghai Showstopper
Image: @McLarenF1 on Twitter/X
The 2025 Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai International Circuit delivered another thrilling weekend of racing, with McLaren topping the tables in dominant fashion. Oscar Piastri claimed his maiden pole position, going on to lead a papaya one-two finish, with Norris following closely behind in second place. Mercedes' George Russell rounded out the podium in third, after a closely fought battle with the McLaren duo.
Oscar Pias-three
(Please forgive the awful pun!)
Oscar Piastri secured his maiden Formula 1 pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session, posting a fastest lap of 1:30.641, narrowly outpacing Mercedes' George Russell by just under one tenth of a second, while McLaren teammate Norris settled for third place. It has to be said - that MCL39 is something else!
As the race got underway, the young Aussie managed his pace well, keeping out ahead of his teammate throughout the 56-lap contest. Norris, who had a strong start by overtaking Russell into Turn 1, pushed hard but was unable to close the gap to Piastri. In the latter stages of the race, Norris was instructed to manage a brake issue, ultimately ensuring a safe McLaren one-two finish, being their 50th in the team’s history. Oscar crossed the line to claim his third victory, 9.7 seconds ahead of a struggling Norris, who was being hunted down by Russell in the dying laps.
It will certainly be interesting to see how the season plays out if we see a constant back-and-forth between the two McLaren drivers, and which of the two will be prioritised - my money’s on Lando!
Midfield Scuffles and DSQ Drama
The Ferrari camp faced a disastrous end to the weekend. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton made contact on the opening lap, slightly damaging Leclerc’s front wing. Although both drivers initially finished in the points, their results were nullified after the race due to technical infringements - both Ferrari cars were disqualified, with Leclerc’s being 1 kilogram underweight and Hamilton’s suffering excessive wear on the rear skid block.
The 7-time world champion gave his thoughts post-race:
Lewis Hamilton on his disqualification from the Chinese Grand Prix
Tough day but a positive weekend overall and we’ve made some good progress since Melbourne. We tried some new set up changes for qualifying and the race that didn’t work out, but that’s a learning we can take with us moving forward.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly also fell victim to disqualification, as his car was found to be 1 kilogram underweight post-race, after a fuel sample had been taken by an FIA technical delegate. His removal from the standings further reshuffled the final classification, allowing other midfield runners to capitalize.
One of the biggest beneficiaries was Gasly’s former teammate Esteban Ocon, who was promoted to fifth place - an excellent result for Haas. His performance throughout the race was steady, and while he initially finished outside the top five, the post-race exclusions elevated him to get a few extra points.
Image: @HaasF1Team on Twitter/X
Williams also had a strong weekend, with Albon securing seventh place on his 29th birthday and Sainz closing out the top ten. Meanwhile, Haas rookie Oliver Bearman and RB’s Isack Hadjar both performed well - the Brit finished P8, with Hadjar just missing out on the points in P11, which is a promising step forward for the Frenchman after initial disappointment at the season’s opening round in Melbourne.
Red Bull Woes
The Milton Keynes team faced a challenging Sunday on track - the defending champion Max Verstappen, who had expressed concerns over the team's pace following their Sprint struggles, ultimately finished in fourth place. Despite some promising pace towards the later stages of the event, Verstappen was consistently about a second per lap slower than the frontrunners, a gap that proved too wide to overcome. The team's efforts to manage tyre degradation and execute a balanced race strategy were evident but, in the end, these measures did not translate into a strong finish.
Verstappen’s remarks post-race hinted at the struggles of extracting optimal performance under the challenging race conditions.
Image: Red Bull Content Pool
Liam Lawson also had yet another difficult outing this weekend; After starting at the back of the grid in P20 for both the Sprint and the Grand Prix, Lawson struggled to break into the points. The team had attempted to help him with setup changes under Parc Fermé conditions by moving him to a pit lane start, hoping to use him as a tyre strategy guinea pig of sorts. However, the adjustments backfired as Lawson’s pace suffered massively and, despite making some progress during the Sprint (moving up to 14th), he ultimately finished the GP in P15, later being promoted to P12 after disqualifications.
Lawson’s post-race comments reflected his disappointment with the set-up changes, admitting that “it just didn’t work”. He acknowledged that although he had shown some competitive pace in the Sprint, his performance on Sunday failed to impress, and he had a lot to learn from the weekend. With mounting pressure following his promotion to the Red Bull seat, Lawson is now facing comparisons with his more successful team mates and is determined to work hard on his weaknesses in preparation for future races.
To conclude…
So, Shanghai again provided us with an exciting spectacle with McLaren's dominance shining through, with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris leading a papaya one-two finish, while George Russell rounded out the podium, setting an intriguing stage for the next round at Suzuka. Lando Norris leads Max Verstappen in the championship by 8 points, with Russell then just a point behind in third.
Whatever happens at the next round in Japan, we’ll be covering the very best bits on Race Reaction.
Final Race Classification
1 - Oscar PIASTRI
2 - Lando NORRIS
3 - George RUSSELL
4 - Max VERSTAPPEN
5 - Esteban OCON
6 - Andrea Kimi ANTONELLI
7 - Alexander ALBON
8 - Oliver BEARMAN
9 - Lance STROLL
10 - Carlos SAINZ
11 - Isack HADJAR
12 - Liam LAWSON
13 - Jack DOOHAN
14 - Gabriel BORTOLETO
15 - Nico HULKENBERG
16 - Yuki TSUNODA
DNF - Fernando ALONSO
DSQ - Charles LECLERC
DSQ - Lewis HAMILTON
DSQ - Pierre GASLY
