This year’s Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend involved both a sprint race and a full race. The Mercedes duo of George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli qualified in the first two positions for the sprint race, with Lando Norris of McLaren third, Sir Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari fourth, Oscar Piastri of McLaren fifth, and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari sixth. In the sprint race itself, the Ferraris did well but were unable to catch the leading Mercedes of Mr. Russell.
Qualifying for the full race went largely as expected, with pole position for Mr. Antonelli, Mercedes teammate Mr. Russell starting from second, then the Ferraris of Sir Lewis and Mr. Leclerc, then the McLarens of Mr. Piastri and Mr. Norris. On race day, though, it was a non-start for both McLaren cars with power unit problems.
As in Australia a week ago, both Ferraris rocketed off the start line to get into the lead (Sir Lewis) and third place (Mr. Leclerc), but the Mercedes cars quickly caught up. The two Red Bull cars had a disastrous first few laps, with launch issues (Max Verstappen) and then a spin (Isack Hadjar) seeing them fall to the mid-field and back of the pack.
Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) ran into technical problems after about ten laps and stopped, resulting in a safety car being deployed and most of the pack diving into the pits to change tyres. Mr. Hadjar was able to close back up to the rest of the pack. Considerable battling between the two Ferrari cars ensued through the middle of the race, keeping Mr. Russell behind them but also not catching up to Mr. Antonelli at the front. At the halfway point, Mr. Russell managed to overtake Sir Lewis, and then a few laps later, Mr. Leclerc. This left him with slightly less than half the race length to try to catch Mr. Antonelli.
With about ten laps to go, Mr. Verstappen ran into technical problems and retired from the race. Mr. Antonelli continued to put out faster and faster laps despite being on well-used tyres through the second half of the race. Mr. Russell was unable to catch him, and remained in a solid second place, ahead of the two Ferraris.
In the end, Mr. Antonelli took a comfortable and well-executed win for Mercedes; his first victory for the team. Mr. Russell finished a comfortable second, ahead of Sir Lewis with his first podium finish for Ferrari, and his first podium finish since late 2024. With almost a third of the field not racing or else not finishing the race, Alpine managed to get both its cars—piloted by Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto—across the finish line for points.
After just two races, Mercedes has had two one-two finishes and is comfortably ahead of a much-improved (since last season) Ferrari in the constructors’ championship. Last year’s champion team McLaren is already a distant third, and not all that far ahead of the other teams. Thanks to his victory in the Chinese sprint race, Mr. Russell is just ahead of Mr. Antonelli in the drivers’ championship. The two Ferrari drivers are not all that far behind, and just a point apart from each other. The big disappointment of the season so far is McLaren.