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Lando Norris survives to take second ahead of George Russell.
Oscar Piastri wins the Chinese Grand Prix for McLaren!
L56 Last lap. Piastri is well clear but Norris is dropping back quickly. Will his brakes last?
L54 Joseph’s warnings to Norris are getting more dire.
L53 Verstappen winds around the outside of Leclerc at turn three. The Ferrari driver tries to take him back at turn six to no avail.
L52 Leclerc now has his mirrors full of Verstappen’s Red Bull.
Doohan has been given a 10-second time penalty for forcing Hadjar off.
Joseph to Norris: “I’d rather finish second than not at all. No hard braking.”
McLaren tell Norris the brake pedal will continue to feel like it’s getting longer but the braking power won’t diminish. They have to tread a careful line with these messages as if race control decide the car is in an unsafe condition they could be told to pit.
Doohan makes a very late move to defend as Hadjar attacks approaching turn 14.
Norris says his brake pedal has gone ‘long’.
The stewards have noted Hadjar and Doohan for an incident.
L47 A frustrated Tsunoda pits with a broken front-right wing flap.
L44 Norris has fallen 4.5s behind Piastri, Russell is 5s adrift. Norris: “I’ve lost a bit of pace.”
L40 Bearman moves into the points places by easily passing Gasly with DRS.
Piastri: “I think we can go to the end.”
L39 Hamilton is the highest-placed driver to opt for a two-stop strategy, he takes another set of hards and only loses one place, to Verstappen.
L37 Stroll finally pits and is surely going to try to run to the end on mediums.
Bearman making good progress on his mediums, he’s now passed Sainz. Tsunoda makes his second pit stop.
Well, well: McLaren tell Norris that risk of rain, mentioned earlier, is increasing.
Hadjar makes his second stop.
Stroll now up to 33 laps on his original set of hard tyres, giving hope to those who switched to the medium tyre late and might be thinking of attempting a one-stop strategy.
Norris is two-and-a-half seconds behind Piastri. “Can you tell him to just speed up a little bit because I’m in the dirty air,” he says. He wants to build up more of a gap over Russell to avoid the threat of the undercut.
L31 Lawson’s tough race goes on, he makes his second pit stop and is now 18th.
Joseph: “Lando what pace is this?” Norris: “I’m mainly just waiting. Pace four, maybe. Pace four-ish.” He’s just set the fastest lap and now has Piastri’s lead under three-and-a-half seconds.
“The Mercedes is a dragster out of turn 12,” remarks Leclerc, pursuing Russell.
L25 Bearman locks up as he tries to pass Stroll at turn 14 and the Aston Martin driver retakes the place.
Piastri now leads Norris by 4.3 seconds. Russell is only 1.6s behind, Leclerc another 1.6s behind. Hamilton 1.2s off him and Verstappen sixth, 3.2s down. Next are Stroll and Bearman who are still yet to pit on their hards. Lawson has switched to the mediums, however, and is 17th.
L21 The Ferrari drivers swap positions.
Adami tell Hamilton to let Leclerc by. He says he will “when he’s closer,” says Leclerc needs to give him the place back if he doesn’t gain on the leaders and points out he’s closing on the cars ahead. He’s 1.6s behind Russell.
Leclerc hasn’t taken a new front wing, he’s close behind Hamilton after their pit stops, but they both have to pass Stroll now. Piastri has retaken the lead from Albon.
L18 Norris can pass Russell: He gets him with DRS on the inside approaching turn one.
McLaren tell Norris that Russell “pushed massively” at the beginning of this stint to get ahead of him and tell him to pass the Mercedes if he can.
Norris emerges narrowly behind Russell, they pick their way pass Stroll who hasn’t pitted yet. Alexander Albon now leads – on his birthday!
Ocon put a brave move on Antonelli, putting half his car on the grass.
L15 Leader Piastri pits too, it’s not a perfectly quick stop for him. Russell comes in too. Norris leads Leclerc and Albon.
L14 Hamilton and Verstappen pit – so the Red Bull driver wasn’t trying to extend his first stint, he was just losing time.
Antonelli comes out behind Tsunoda – he couldn’t pass him yesterday but really needs to now.
L13 Antonelli pits along with Hadjar. Gasly came in before Ocon and briefly got ahead of him but the Haas driver ha retaken his former team mate.
Verstappen still running half a second off the pace, seemingly intentionally.
L12 Tsunoda, Ocon and Doohan all pit. That’s going to start opening up gaps in the midfield.
L11 Hamilton: “Anything I can do on switches to get this car to turn more?” Adami: “Try engine braking four.”
L10 Leclerc is told he’s on plan ‘B’, but he says “if it stays like this I want plan ‘A’”. Ferrari trying to eke out a single-stop strategy.
L9 Leclerc has now gained on Hamilton, Verstappen 4s behind the Ferraris. Lots of tyre-nursing going on at a moment. “Car’s understeering quite a bit,” says Hamilton.
L8 Norris: “I’m starting to struggle a little, left front.”
Verstappen has dropped three seconds behind Leclerc. That doesn’t look likely to be performance as Leclerc has a damaged wing. Is he looking after his tyres?
L7 Piastri has Norris just over a second behind. Russell is starting to slip back from the McLarens, the gap between them now up to 1.6 seconds.
Alonso has pulled into the pits to retire.
Hamilton on the first lap: “I’ve been hit by someone.” It was his team mate.
Gasly: “Brakes on fire for Alonso.”
Bozzi to Leclerc: “We have 20 to 30 points [of downforce] loss on the front.”
Dream start for McLaren. This gives them the best opportunity to control a race which is likely to be dominated by tyre management.
Verstappen reports Leclerc’s front wing is broken. We’ve got a yellow flag, looks like a problem for Bortoleto.
The 2025 Chinese Grand Prix is go! Norris gets to to second behind Piastri. Verstappen has lost two places to the Ferraris.
Stroll, Bearman and Lawson will all start on the hard tyre compound, the rest are on mediums.
F1 confirmed the risk of rain during the race is just 10%.
The right-hand side of the grid doesn’t look very clean, especially in front of George Russell’s grid position. Immediately behind him on the potentially less grippy side are Verstappen, Leclerc and Antonelli.
Add Hulkenberg to that list. All four will be investigated after the race. These are unlikely to result in sporting penalties.
Albon and Tsunoda have now been noted for the same potential infringement as Bortoleto. The drivers may have fallen foul of an update to the practice start restrictions in the last version of the race directors’ event notes. This now reads: “Practice starts may only be carried out on the asphalt on the RHS of the pit exit after the pit exit line and before the end of the pit wall and, for the avoidance of doubt, this includes any time the pit exit is open for the sprint and the race.” The clause “after the pit exit line” was added in an amendment to the guidance yesterday.
Practice starts may only be carried out on the asphalt on the RHS of the pit exit after the pit
exit line and before the end of the pit wall and, for the avoidance of doubt, this includes any
time the pit exit is open for the sprint and the race.
The stewards have noted Gabriel Bortoleto for failing to follow the practice start procedure as drivers head to the grid and performance reconnaissance laps.
The FIA has confirmed the final starting grid for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Liam Lawson, who qualified last, will start the race from the pit lane after Red Bull made set-up changes to his car.
A small update on the weather forecast – originally there was no chance of rain throughout the race, that has changed slightly, and now the chance is around 10%. That obviously still means it’s very likely to stay dry, but the post-race showers noted in the strategy briefing article do seem to be moving in a little quicker than the early models indicated. But it’s more likely to be a problem for those packing equipment away in the paddock after the race than the strategists on the pit wall.
Full an in-depth look at all the key data for this race, including which tyres are available for each driver, how long pit stops take and more, check out our pre-race strategy briefing.
Tyre management was a significant factor in yesterday’s sprint race and that will inevitably be the case for the grand prix as well. Whoever emerges from the first lap in the lead will have the advantage of clean air which makes it far easier to keep the tyres in the ideal temperature window and control the graining which particularly affects the front-left.
But Oscar Piastri has put one MCL39 at the pointy end of the grid for the main event. McLaren didn’t manage to lock out the front row, however. An inspired lap by George Russell in the dying moments of Q3 relegated Lando Norris to third place. Norris shares the second row of the grid with Max Verstappen and the two Ferraris are lined up behind them.
McLaren have looked like the quickest team since the weekend began but they didn’t manage to win the sprint race – pole and victory there went the way of Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari.
We’re one hour away from the start of the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix.
2025 Chinese Grand Prix
- Lack of pre-season testing hurt Red Bull debut but it’s ‘no excuse’ – Lawson
- Doohan up to four penalty points already after forcing Hadjar off in Chinese GP
- Norris was “a little bit scared” when brakes began to fail at end of race
- Vote for your 2025 Chinese Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend
- Piastri leads McLaren one-two in China as Norris survives brake scare
