Piastri leads Norris to McLaren one-two in China

Osacr Piastri and Lando Norris — Piastri has now won three F1 grands prix [Getty Images]

Oscar Piastri led Lando Norris to a dominant McLaren one-two in the Chinese Grand Prix ahead of George Russell's Mercedes.

Piastri's calm, controlled victory made it two wins from two for McLaren at the start of the season following Norris' outstanding drive in the wet in Melbourne last weekend.

The Australian led from pole and lost first place only briefly in the period around the leaders' only pit stops. Piastri was rarely more than four seconds ahead of Norris but always in control.

Norris was struggling with fading brakes in the closing laps but had enough of an advantage to hold Russell at bay.

Charles Leclerc drove an outstanding race in a Ferrari with a damaged front wing, his pace forcing Ferrari to order team-mate Lewis Hamilton out of his way.

But the pair were disqualified after the race - seemingly for separate technical infringements - along with Alpine's Pierre Gasly.

During the race, Leclerc lost fourth place to Red Bull's Max Verstappen with four laps to go as the world champion's car found some pace in the second half of the race.

Hamilton, who took an outstanding victory in the shorter sprint race on Saturday, had resisted the team orders call for a couple of laps before letting Leclerc by and then dropped back.

The seven-time champion made a second pit stop, while the other leaders all stayed out on their single set of hard tyres, fitted at their only pit stops.

The result leaves Norris leading the championship by eight points from Verstappen, with Russell a further point adrift.

It was a copybook win for Piastri, the third of his F1 career, and founded on the advantage he earned by scoring his maiden pole position on Saturday.

Piastri held off a challenge from Russell off the line by forcing the Briton to the inside, and the Mercedes' compromised line allowed Norris to pass Russell before the end of the long Turn One, Two, Three complex.

Once running one-two, the McLaren drivers settled into a comfortable race, disrupted only when Russell stopped on the same lap as Piastri, one lap before Norris.

As Norris came out of the pits, Russell was battling Lance Stroll's Aston Martin, which had stayed out, and the presence of Stroll boxed Norris in and allowed Russell to retain second place.

Russell cleared Stroll first and Norris soon after, and the McLaren driver was able to pass the Mercedes with a great move into Turn One a lap later.

Russell hung on to Norris for 10 laps or so, before the McLaren edged further ahead as McLaren asked Piastri to speed up a little to allow Norris to have some breathing space from the Mercedes if a second stop was required.

Once it became clear that the hard tyres would last to the end, the top three positions were set to the end, even though Norris was struggling with a long brake pedal in the final 10 laps.

With five laps to go, Norris was told to make sure he finished the race with "no hard braking", his race engineer Will Joseph underlining that in the context of the championship, "18 points is better than no points at all".

With two laps to go, Norris was really struggling, and his eight-second lead was cut to just one by Russell on the final lap, but he survived.

Chinese GP start — Russell challenged for the lead at the start but would eventually lose a place [Getty Images]

Hamilton's frustration at team orders

Leclerc damaged his front wing as his inside line around the first corners pincered him and Hamilton towards each other, and an oversteer snap slid him into the sister Ferrari as both managed to pass Verstappen, who slipped from fourth to sixth with his outside line.

The collision tore off Leclerc's left-front endplate but it did not seem to compromise him and he tracked Hamilton through the first stint, following in his wheel tracks up to the first pit stops.

They returned to the track with Hamilton still ahead and within five laps, with Leclerc right behind his team-mate, the team ordered Hamilton to let the Monegasque by.

Hamilton initially said: "When he's closer." And pushed back again when the team insisted and said where to do it, saying: "I'll tell you when we're going to swap" before eventually acquiescing.

Leclerc challenged Russell for second, tracking right behind the Mercedes from laps 25 to 28 before a snap at the hairpin gave Russell some breathing space.

Once Hamilton had made his stop for a second set of tyres, Verstappen had a clear run at Leclerc and with four laps to go was on the Ferrari's tail.

Verstappen took fourth with a lovely move at the start of lap 54, going around the outside of the right-handed Turn One before cutting back to go for the outside again at Turn Three as Leclerc was compromised by his tight entry.

Leclerc fought back into Turn Six, but Verstappen fended off the Ferrari to cement the position.

Hamilton took a lonely sixth, closing to just two seconds adrift of Leclerc at the flag on his fresher tyres.

The best of the rest was Esteban Ocon's Haas, in a much-improved showing after a poor opening race for the US-based team. He led home the second Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Williams' Alex Albon and the second Haas of Briton Oliver Bearman.

Chinese GP fans — The race as one of the best attended in China since 2004 [Getty Images]

Eddie Jordan tribute at Chinese GP — Tributes were paid to former team owner and pundit Eddie Jordan before the race, following his passing on Friday [Getty Images]

Topics

Piastri leads Norris to McLaren one-two in China

Oscar Piastri leads Lando Norris to a dominant McLaren one-two in the Chinese Grand Prix ahead of George Russell's Mercedes.
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Piastri takes first pole in China ahead of Russell

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Piastri leads Norris to McLaren one-two in China

Hamilton's frustration at team orders

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