Piastri dominant as three drivers disqualified in China

Oscar Piastri has capped off a solid weekend in Shanghai with victory in the Chinese Grand Prix, while both Ferraris and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly were disqualified post-race by the stewards for rule breaches.

The Melburnian, who set a new track lap record in qualifying, was the first Aussie driver to start from P1 since Daniel Ricciardo in Mexico in 2018, converting his maiden Grand Prix pole to a third F1 victory while keeping McLaren teammate, and championship rival Lando Norris behind him the entire race.

Piastri got away cleanly at the start, with Norris quickly past George Russell for second. At the first pit stops, Russell undercut Norris on lap 16, before Norris passed him again two laps later.

Norris for his part had a more difficult afternoon around the Shanghai International Circuit, being forced to manage left front tyre wear and a deteriorating brake issue in the latter stages of the race which saw him finish just 1.3 seconds ahead of Russell.

For Piastri, the result was just what the doctor ordered after his heartbreak last weekend at his home race in Melbourne.

“It’s been an incredible weekend from start to finish. Car’s been pretty mega the whole time,” said the Aussie.

“I think today was a bit of a surprise – it was how different the tires behaved.

“Just proud of the whole weekend...this is what I deserve from last week.

“The team did a mega job, one-two obviously so very, very happy."

While he had a more difficult afternoon, Norris was pleased to grow McLaren’s advantage in the Constructors Championship over Mercedes.

“There were a few fun moments - the start I was kind of hoping for, so turn one went to plan, but George got me on the pit stops and I was a little bit nervous, but our pace was a lot better in the second stint,” said the British driver.

“Tough race, just for the management, and I don’t think many people expected a one stop today.

“Oscar was quick the whole race. I tried to get close, but in the end...it doesn’t matter now, I’m happy with second, it’s good points.”

Fourth was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, ahead of the Ferraris, with Charles Leclerc beating Lewis Hamilton for fifth and sixth at the chequered flag. However, both cars were later disqualified post-race for breaches of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.

Leclerc clashed with his teammate during the early stages of the race, losing a front wing end plate. He was allowed to continue the race and was not shown the black and orange flag for a dangerous car.

Post a Grand Prix, all cars that finish are weighed, and it was found that Leclerc's Ferrari was 1kg below the minimum weight of 800kg under the rules. Regardless of the missing end plate, it was determined the car was still under weight when a replacement front wing was fitted.

For Hamilton, it was discovered that the skid block plank assembly onboard his SF-25 was below the permitted minimum thickness of 9mm, with post-race scrutineering finding the thickness to be 8.6mm on the left and 8.5mm on the right hand side of the car.

Both breaches, which a Ferrari representative told FIA stewards were genuine errors by the team, mean the team loses the 18 points originally earned at the cheqeuered flag.

Meanwhile at Alpine, Pierre Gasly was also disqualified for the same reason as Leclerc, with his car too being found to be 1kg underweight, however the French driver was 11th across the line originally, and therefore did not score points regardless.

The post-race disqulifications saw the remaining drivers promoted up the order, with Esteban Ocon the lead Haas driver in the points classified fifth, with Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli sixth.

Williams' Alex Albon was classified seventh while Ollie Bearman was promoted to eighth.

With Pierre Gasly's disqualification, Lance Stroll moved to ninth collecting two points for Aston Martin, while Carlos Sainz claimed the final points scoring position, classified tenth and taking home an extra point for Williams.

Liam Lawson, who for the second race in a row started from the pit lane, made up five places in the end to finish 15th at the line (promoted to 12th in the classification).

The result put him four places ahead of Racing Bulls’ Yuki Tsunoda, who last weekend in Melbourne was applying the pressure with a strong performance in the season opener, pushing his case for promotion to the senior Red Bull team after being overlooked in favour of the Kiwi.

Unfortunately for Tsunoda, he suffered front wing damage during the race, and was forced to pit for a replacement, destroying his race and ultimately finishing last.

Jack Doohan was classified 13th for Alpine but was handed a ten second time penalty and two penalty points on his super licence by FIA stewards for pushing fellow rookie Isack Hadjar off the track at the turn 14 hairpin.

It was the Aussie’s second penalty of the weekend after an earlier ten second time penalty and two penalty points for a similar incident at the same corner in Saturday's sprint race.

12 penalty points incurred over a 12-month period sees an F1 driver receive a one-race ban, with Doohan now carrying four points after just two Grand Prix weekends.

Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin was the only car to retire from the Shanghai race, after a brake fire brought a premature end to his afternoon on lap four of the Grand Prix.

Formula 1 now heads to Suzuka, for the Japanese Grand Prix between 4th-6th April.

2025 Chinese Grand Prix results

1: Oscar Piastri, 2: Lando Norris, 3: George Russell, 4: Max Verstappen, 5: Esteban Ocon, 6: Kimi Antonelli, 7: Alex Albon, 8: Ollie Bearman, 9: Lance Stroll, 10: Carlos Sainz, 11: Isack Hadjar, 12: Liam Lawson, 13: Jack Doohan, 14: Gabriel Bortoleto, 15: Nico Hulkenberg, 16: Yuki Tsunoda.