Ferrari despair, Lawson axe, upbeat Albon: Chinese GP talking points

Under pressure: Red Bull's Liam Lawson (GREG BAKER)

Oscar Piastri led a McLaren one-two from Lando Norris in the Chinese Grand Prix after an action-packed weekend where Lewis Hamilton won the first Saturday sprint of the season and then had a shock disqualification Sunday, along with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc and Alpine's Pierre Gasly.

AFP Sport looks at three talking points from the second race weekend on the 24-leg 2025 Formula One calendar:

- Don't break the rules -

Ferrari experienced the highs and lows of Formula One in Shanghai with Hamilton controlling the sprint from pole for his first win in Scuderia red.

Just over 24 hours later, the team's joy turned to despair as the seven-time world champion and his teammate Leclerc were both disqualified for technical infringements.

Hamilton was deemed to have excessive plank wear underneath his car, while Leclerc's car was below the 800 kilogram weight minimum.

Ferrari pleaded innocence and said they had "no intention to gain any advantage".

The Italian team claimed Leclerc's one-stop race strategy had caused high tyre wear, accounting for the weight breach.

They added they had misjudged Hamilton's plank wear "by a small margin".

The excuses cut no ice with stewards who also disqualified Gasly for his car also being underweight.

The three cars being kicked out sent a clear warning to any teams or engineers aiming to push the boundaries of the regulations: you break the rules at your peril.

- Lawson could be out -

Speculation was rife at the weekend that the under-performing Liam Lawson may lose his Red Bull seat after just two races.

Japan's Yuki Tsunoda could be promoted from junior team RB in time for his home race weekend at Suzuka on April 4-6, specialist website

Autosport reported after Sunday's race.

The 23-year-old Lawson has been knocked out at the first stage of all three qualifying sessions this season after stepping up from RB.

The New Zealander is yet to score a point while Max Verstappen in the other Red Bull is second in the title race with 36.

Tsunoda has shown pace on both race weekends, only finishing out of the points on Sunday because of his team's flawed two-stop pit strategy.

Even after just two weeks, Red Bull cannot afford to let McLaren, who are already 42 points ahead, run away with the constructors' standings.

A downcast Lawson knows he is under threat.

"Unfortunately I don't really have time but it's just one of those things," he conceded on Saturday.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner did not exactly give Lawson a vote of confidence.

"I think Liam's had a tough couple of races, a tough weekend here. We'll have a good look at it," he said, but he was more upbeat when asked about Tsunoda.

"Yuki is an experienced driver now doing a great job."

- Albon's happy birthday -

Alex Albon declared he was "very happy" after celebrating his 29th birthday on Sunday with a second top-10 GP finish in this season's vastly improved Williams.

The Thai drove flawlessly in the Melbourne rain a week ago to finish a surprise fifth.

He followed up with another impeccable race to cross the line ninth in China, later promoted to seventh.

Williams have recruited Carlos Sainz and with two experienced men at the wheel are making huge strides.

Albon finished only 11th in the sprint but the team turned it around.

"Considering the sprint race, today was a huge step for us and it shows the progress we've made," said Albon, who lies sixth in the drivers' championship with 16 points after two race weekends -- four more than he scored in the whole of last season.

"We can fix issues that we have on our car, which is a huge improvement on where we were last year."

dh/pst

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