Piastri Heads Norris in 2025 Chinese GP – Sport Grill

Oscar Piastri headed Lando Norris as McLaren recorded their 50th one-two finish in F1 at 2025 Chinese Grand Prix. 

Piastri led from lights to flag aside from the opening pit-stop phase which saw him lose the lead to Lando Norris then Alex Albon, before he resumed the lead on Lap 18 and proceeded to cruise to victory.

Norris settled for second ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell who survived a mid-race threat from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to round out the podium.

Max Verstappen brought his Red Bull to the checkered flag in fourth following a Lap 53 pass on Leclerc.

Lewis Hamilton settled for sixth as the highest-placed two-stopper driver, whilst Esteban Ocon drove a well-executed one-stop strategy to finish seventh ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Alex Albon and Oliver Bearman.

In the drivers’ standings, Norris remained at the summit with 44 points and now eight points ahead of Verstappen who is just one further point ahead of Russell, whilst Piastri propelled himself up to fourth in the title race and ten points off his teammate.

At lights out, Piastri made a quick getaway to narrowly fend off Russell who had enjoyed a slightly better getaway by 0.008 seconds, which left the Brit exposed to Norris who swept round the outside to take second from his compatriot.

Hamilton and Leclerc meanwhile demoted Verstappen two positions to sixth in an uncharacteristically poor start for the reigning four-time champion, although Leclerc damaged his front wing during the move after he got scruffy on the inside kerb and clipped Hamilton’s rear.

Antonelli and Yuki Tsunoda jumped Isack Hadjar for seventh and eighth respectively, and Esteban Ocon passed Alex Albon to round out the top ten on the opening lap.

The field soon settled into an early tyre management phase until Alpine pitted Pierre Gasly at the end of Lap 10, which quickly triggered a chain reaction of stops, during which Tsunoda undercut Antonelli who then got passed by Ocon on Lap 15.

Up front, Piastri made his stop at the end of Lap 14 with third-placed Russell following suit which saw him undercut Norris when the championship leader stopped a lap later, but the pair found themselves stuck behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll after Norris’ stop.

Russell quickly cleared Stroll on that same lap whilst Norris had to wait another lap to pass the Canadian before he rapidly caught up to Russell by the end of that lap, which enabled him to pass the Mercedes driver on the inside of the first corner on Lap 18.

Ferrari meanwhile were forced to swap Hamilton and Leclerc around following their pit stops due to Leclerc’s better pace, with the switch-around completed at Turn 1 on Lap 22.

Piastri regained the lead from Williams’ birthday boy, Albon on Lap 18 and proceeded to build an initial circa four-second gap at the front to Norris, which came down to around three seconds mid-phase.

Racing Bulls meanwhile were the first to gamble on a two-stop strategy with Hadjar and Tsunoda which soon led others to follow suit, including Hamilton who made a second stop on Lap 38 amidst growing late-race pressure from Verstappen.

Haas consequently took advantage of those strategy gamblers after Bearman had ran the alternate strategy of starting on hard tyres from 17th on the grid until the end of Lap 26, before he benefitted from the medium tyres to work his way up to tenth by the end of Lap 40.

Piastri ultimately cruised to victory ahead of Norris for McLaren’s 50th one-two finish in F1, whilst Russell completed the podium.

Leclerc found himself demoted to fifth at the checkered flag after Verstappen found late-race pace on lower fuel and managed to pass him on Lap 53 at Turn 3, after the Monegasque found himself off line on entry to that corner.

F1 now takes a fortnight’s break ahead of the Japanese GP at Suzuka from 4-6 April.

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