Race Report: Piastri wins Chinese GP, Ferrari DSQ’d

Oscar Piastri converted his first 1 pole position into a dominant win at the Chinese Grand Prix ahead of teammate, Lando Norris and Mercedes driver George Russell. McLaren clearly learned from Saturday’s Sprint race and managed their tire wear and pace for their 50th 1-2 finish in Formula 1.

Win

A win for McLaren and Oscar Piastri. Oscar had a terrific weekend and didn’t put a foot wrong on Sunday. Things weren’t quite as smooth for Lando Norris as he struggled more with the car but a worsening brake pedal late in the race eliminated any attempt to have a go at Oscar. While that’s not great for Lando, it probably spared the team from more Papaya Rules nonsense. Also, if there is a lesson to be learned, it could be that McLaren may have a tenth or two over the field.

A win for George Russell and Mercedes. George had another one of his patented quiet podium finishes. A terrific qualifying put him int he hunt and despite being passed by Lando early on, he managed to manage his tires and hold off the Ferrari’s and Max Verstappen to bring it home in P2. Kimi Antonelli had a nice run to P6 as well and it keeps Toto Wolff and company in 2nd in the constructor’s championship.

While it wasn’t an actual win for Max Verstappen, it was still a win to keep his championship title moving in a positive direction. Max managed his tires for most of the race but turned the wick up late in the race to pass Leclerc for P4. The car simply didn’t have the pace and had it had more performance, perhaps he could have had a podium.

A win for Haas who managed a dual-points finish with Estban Ocon in P5 and Ollie Bearman in P8. A fantastic result for both drivers and a real redemption drive for Ollie given his Australian GP weekend.

A win for Alex Albon and Williams with more points in P7. While Carlos Sainz struggles to come to grip with his new Williams drive, Alex has been delivering in spades with a terrific drive to P7. Carlos did recover and brought it home in P10 )after penalties for Ferrari) and that’s a dual-points finish for Williams.

Another win with a terrific drive to the points for Lance Stroll. Lance started on Hards and ran long to climb into the point in P9. His teammate retired with brake failure so Lance took the weight of the team on his shoulders and delivered points.

Honorable mentions for Isack Hadjar who had a very good race and redemption drive after Australia. At times leading Yuki over the weekend, he brought it home in P11 just outside the points due to a strategy call that didn’t work. Hindsight is always 20/20 but I believe he would have been well into the points had they chosen a 1-stopper.

Also honorable mentions for Jack Doohan who received a penalty for forcing Isack off track but the rest of his defense was aggressive and effective to keep Hadjar behind him. Jack would have been there or thereabouts with Pierre Gasly so that’s really good and with Liam Lawson’s issues, perhaps the calls for Jack to be replaced will quiet down.

Fail

A big fail for Ferrari who had both cars disqualified for the Chinese Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton had a skid block worn too much while Charles Leclerc’s car was under weight even with a replacement wing for measurement. They had finished in P5 and P6 but the DSQ drops them out of the classification. A big blow for the team after Lewis’s win on Saturday.

A fail for Alpine and Pierre Gasly who also received a DSQ for his car being under weight too. A tough blow for the team.

A fail for The Racing Bull’s who opted for a 2-stopper that dropped both cars out of the points. Hindsight is always 20/20 of course but both drivers had a very good race. Also, Yuki Tsunoda’s front wing breaking seemingly under load was not good.

A fail for Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso with two DNF’s in two races so far this year. Thankfully Lance has been there to pick up the pieces.

WTH

Not sure where the pace of Sauber went from last weekend but they certainly seem to have found the back of the grid and one fears this may be where they are on merit.

I found it interesting to see the lessons learned from Saturday to Sunday. No team ran the Hard compound and assumed it would be a good race tire and thankfully it was. The difference in tire wear, graining and degradation from Saturday to Sunday was interesting to see.

Pirelli Report:

On the starting grid, 17 drivers opted for the Medium for the first stint with only Lance Stroll and Oliver Bearman going for the Hard, while Liam Lawson also opted for the C2, but he started from the pit lane because of a penalty. While all the indications going into the race were for a two-stop strategy being clearly the most plausible, the way the race went and the tyre behaviour, especially in the case of the Hard that had not been used at all over the previous two days, steered the majority of the field towards a one-stop the more the cars ran on track.

Those who started on the Medium pitted to take on the C2 in a window between laps 10 and 20, Pierre Gasly the first to stop and Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg the last. Meanwhile, the three drivers who started on the Hard ran a variety of stint lengths: Lawson came in on lap 18, Bearman on 26 and Stroll stayed out until 36. Apart from these three, Gabriel Bortoleto had to pit on the opening lap to go straight onto the Hard, before coming in for another set of C2s after 25 laps.

In the second part of the race, it became clear that the Hard tyre was working very well, with only slight degradation. Three drivers (Hamilton and the two Racing Bulls) nevertheless went for a second stop, leaving the rest of the field to go all the way to the chequered flag. Of those who started on the Hard, Stroll and Bearman did their second stint on the Medium.

Chinese Grand Prix Results: