FORMULA 1
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 Getty Images Oscar Piastri wins the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix, with Lando Norris just managing to take P2, followed by Russell in P3. Verstappen finished fourth, Leclerc fifth and Hamilton sixth. The race was filled with tyre strategy, brake issues and points for both Haas drivers and Alex Albon. Fernando Alonso was the only car to retire from the race, and Oscar Piastri dominated from start to finish. McLaren won their 50th 1-2 finish, with Alpine now being the only team yet to score any points. Post race Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly were disqualified due to their cars being below the minimum weight required. Lewis Hamilton was also disqualified following his skid wear being below the minimum thickness of 9mm. Race Facts
 Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool Oscar Piastri started on pole position for the second race of the 2025 season, the Chinese Grand Prix. Weather conditions were cooler than Qualifying and the Sprint race with a very small chance of rain in the race's closing stages. All of the drivers started on the medium compound tyres except for Stroll, Bearman and Lawson, who all started on the hard compound tyres. Lawson started on hard tyres but did so from the pit lane after changing the Red Bull's set-up under Parc Ferme conditions. Oscar Piastri started on pole and held onto the race lead into Turn 1 despite a challenge from Russell, who was too busy trying to get past Piastri that he let Lando Norris through and into second. Lewis Hamilton took fourth position from Verstappen but made contact with Charles Leclerc in the process after Charles bounced out from the kerb and straight into Hamilton. Leclerc reported front wing damage from his teammate's contact but continued in the race. On lap two, Piastri led the Grand Prix, followed by Norris, Russell, Hamilton, Leclerc, Verstappen, Antonelli, Tsunoda, Hadjar, Ocon, Albon, Gasly, Stroll, Sainz, Bearman, Doohan, Lawson, Hulkenberg and Borteloto. Verstappen lost two places at the race start, as did Hadjar, with Hulkenberg losing seven places, Gasly gaining three, and Lawson gaining two.  Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool Alonso reported a problem with his breaks and had to slow down, making his way slowly back to the pits and had to retire his car. Drivers started to report tyre graining very early into the race, with a potential two-stop on the cards. Piastri was leading 1.5 seconds clear of Norris in second, with Russell dropping two seconds back during the opening part of the race after just 1.5 seconds covered the top three in the first few laps. Despite having a damaged front wing, Leclerc started to put pressure on Hamilton, gaining to within DRS range for P4. Meanwhile, Verstappen dropped 4.5 seconds behind the two Ferraris, with questions over a drop of pace from graining on his tyres or just the pace of the Red Bull. After the first round of pit stops, Tsunoda manages a successful undercut on Antonelli, with Ocon and Gasly doing the same to Hadjar. The first of the front runners to pit were Hamilton and Verstappen, which didn't show good signs for Verstappen's pace. Piastri and Russell were next to pit in reaction to the stop from Hamilton, but Piastri had a very slow stop after an issue with his front right tyre, and he was also waiting for Russell to pass him in the pit lane. Norris pits next, but Russell gets him with the undercut for P2, pushing Norris back into P3. Leclerc also pits and comes out behind Hamilton but doesn't take a new front wing. This left Alex Albon leading the Chinese Grand Prix for a couple of laps for the first time since the 2020 Grand Prix in Turkey, when Alex was racing for Red Bull.  Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool Leclerc got within DRS range of Hamilton and tried to pass him, but Hamilton, followed by Leclerc, passed Sainz at the same time, leaving Leclerc behind Hamilton again for the time being. Meanwhile, further forward, Norris passes Russell at Turn 1 and is back into P2. Albon ran long with his tyres and managed to keep Norris and Russell behind him for longer than they would have wanted before Albon pitted. Hamilton knew he was under pressure from Leclerc behind, and Ferrari made a call to switch positions, with Leclerc passing Hamilton and moving up into P4. Leclerc soon caught up with Russell for P3, putting pressure on the Mercedes driver with Norris only two seconds ahead of them both. Leclerc expresses on the radio that "the Mercedes is a dragster out of Turn 12. Unbelievable. the traction they have out of them is unbelievable." At the halfway mark in the race, just ten seconds covered the top five: Piastri, Norris, Russell, Leclerc, and Hamilton. However, the drivers were managing their pace, with many radio conversations about whether they could carry on until the end by just making one stop for the hard compound tyres. At that point in the race, on lap 34, Stroll was the only car left yet to pit, having started on hard tyres; this gave the leading teams vital information about the hard compound tyres. Norris was told on the radio that there was a small chance of rain for the final three laps of the race, just as Oliver Bearman makes a series of overtakes thanks to his offset tyre strategy, on medium tyres, surrounded by others on older hard compound tyres. Verstappen started coming alive in the race and threatened Hamilton of P5. Still, Ferrari made the call to pit Hamilton for a new set of hard compound tyres, committing to the two-stop strategy, and Hamilton came out onto the track 20 seconds behind Verstappen.  Ferrari Media Oliver Bearman cleared Gasly for P10, with Albon five seconds in front of him for P9. Piastri retained the lead of the race, by over 2.4 seconds from Norris, with Russell 6.3 seconds further back, all trying to make their tyres last until the end. Hamilton was lapping a second faster per lap than the five cars in front of him but couldn't close the gap very quickly with Verstappen for P5. Verstappen was closing the gap between himself and Leclerc, putting just 3.5 seconds between himself and the Ferrari. Further ahead, Norris started to drop back from Piastri, with Russell gaining on him. Tsunoda had to pit for the third time after his front wing was damaged, seemingly all on its own, without any contact. Norris started to gain on Piastri with a gap of 3.5 seconds but reported issues of a long brake pedal. Verstappen closed up to 1.5 seconds behind Leclerc, and they had a great battle for P4 with less than seven laps remaining. Verstappen got the move done, going around the outside of Leclerc on Turn 3; he had to fight for it, however, setting up the move at Turn 1 and switching back to the inside of Turn 2. Norris was told on the radio that his brake situation was critical and that he needed to back off Piastri and try to keep some sort of gap between himself and Russell. Oscar Piastri wins the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix, with Lando Norris just managing to take P2, followed by Russell in P3. Verstappen finished fourth, Leclerc fifth and Hamilton sixth.  Getty Images Full Race Classification1) Oscar Piastri 2) Lando Norris +9.748 3) George Russell +11.097 4) Max Verstappen +16.656 5) Charles Leclerc +23.211 DSQ 6) Lewis Hamilton +25.381 DSQ 7) Esteban Ocon +49.969 8) Kimi Antonelli +53.748 9) Alex Albon +56.321 10) Oliver Bearman +61.303 11) Pierre Gasly +67.195 DSQ 12) Lance Stroll +70.204 13) Carlos Sainz +76.387 14) Isack Hadjar +78.875 15) Liam Lawson +81.147 16) Jack Doohan +88.401 17) Gabriel Bortoleto +1 Lap 18) Nico Hulkenberg 19) Yuki Tsunoda DNF) Fernando Alonso McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who wins the Chinese Grand Prix from pole position: “It’s been an incredible weekend from start to finish, the car has been pretty mega the whole time. I think today was a bit of a surprise with how the tyres behaved but I’m super proud and what I feel like I deserve from last week. I’m extremely happy and the team did a mega job, a one-two obviously, I’m very happy.” On the tyres: “On the medium [tyre] it was still a bit tricky but much better than yesterday, and the hard was a much better tyre than what everyone expected, certainly than we expected, so to go all the way to the end that was a bit of a surprise, but a happy surprise. “I’m very proud of the race we managed to pull off and it wasn’t an easy one going in, I’m proud of the whole team and the weekend I’ve been able to pull off.” On the crowd: “Thanks for the support, the crowd has been exceptional this week, there’s a few too many Lewis Hamilton fans but that’s OK, we will convert some of you next year. Thanks for coming out, the support has been incredible this year, I’ve really enjoyed it.”  Getty Images Written by Anny Wooldridge
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