Piastri wins Chinese GP, leads McLaren 1-2 finish

SHANGHAI -- Oscar Piastri beat teammate Lando Norris to victory at the Chinese Grand Prix as McLaren continued to look a cut above the competition at the second round of the new Formula 1 season, while Ferrari suffered a post-race nightmare with a double disqualification for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

In a grand prix that revolved around tyre management, Piastri held the lead from pole position at the start of the race and then cruised to victory over a one-stop strategy.

The win followed a disappointing season-opener for Piastri after he spun out of second place at his home race in Australia one week ago.

"The car was very lovely and good work on reacting to the [tyre] deg," Piastri told his team over the radio after the chequered flag. "Good team effort, that is one very satisfying weekend."

In a post-race interview he said it was a surprise: "It's been an incredible weekend, the car has been pretty mega. Today was a surprise, how differently the tyres behaved. This feels like what I deserved from last week."

Norris finished 9.7 seconds behind his McLaren teammate after struggling with a brake pedal issue in the final laps of the race.

The British driver, who still leads the championship by virtue of his race win at the season-opener, never got close to challenging Piastri for victory and instead had to repass George Russell for second place after losing a place to the Mercedes in the pit stops.

Norris said after the race: "A few fun moments. The start I was hoping for, but then George got me in the pit stops. I was a little nervous, but we were better in the second stint.

"Oscar drove well, he deserved the win. I'm happy with second, good points and great points for the team with a one-two. [The brake pedal] was my worst nightmare, I was losing two, three, four seconds the last two laps. It was scary but we made it to the end."

Russell secured the final place on the podium and with it moved up to third place in the championship, one point ahead of Piastri and nine points behind Norris.

"It's a great result, finishing P3," Russell said. "We knew McLaren were a smidge quicker than us, but more crucial points. I felt it from quite early on that a one-stop was possible, and it turned out easier than we thought possible. It turned out as one of my best weekends in F1."

The Mercedes driver lost second place to Norris at the start, briefly regained the position after the first round of pit stops, but did not have the pace to hold off Norris at Turn 1 on Lap 18.

Max Verstappen secured fourth place for Red Bull after overtaking Ferrari's Charles Leclerc for the position with three laps remaining, although the move was largely irrelevant due to Ferrari having two cars disqualified after the race.

Leclerc, who finished fifth on track, was disqualified for his car being under the minimum 800kg weight, while Lewis Hamilton lost his sixth place due to excessive plank wear underneath the car.

Pierre Gasly, who was 11th for Alpine, was also disqualified from the classification due to an underweight car.

The news added to a miserable Sunday for Ferrari.

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Verstappen moves past Leclerc into 4th place

Max Verstappen has moved past Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to move into 4th place at the Chinese GP.

Earlier, Leclerc lost part of his front wing on the opening lap in a minor collision with new teammate Hamilton. Leclerc and Hamilton passed Verstappen in the first corner of the first lap, but as Leclerc dived to the inside of Turn 3, he clipped the right rear tyre of Hamilton.

Despite the damage, Leclerc looked faster than Hamilton in the opening phase of the race and Hamilton offered to swap position on Lap 21, before moving over for Leclerc on Lap 22.

Clearly struggling with tyre management, Hamilton opted for a two-stop strategy while the five cars ahead of him completed the distance with just one tyre change. The alternative approach made little difference at the end, with Hamilton finishing just 2.1 seconds behind Leclerc before both lost their positions.

Just one week after Haas looked like the slowest team in the field in Australia, Esteban Ocon secured fifth place in China thanks to the Ferrari woes, ahead of the second Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli in sixth.

Alex Albon secured six points for Williams in seventh ahead of the second Haas of Oliver Bearman, who adopted an alternative strategy and moved through the field in the second half of the race to take eighth place. Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz were promoted to the top 10 after the post-race disqualifications.

Formula 1 paid tribute to Eddie Jordan with a one minute silence on the grid ahead of the race. Former F1 team owner Jordan died aged 76 earlier this week.