Less than a week after the checkered flag fell at the season opener in Australia, the drivers were back in the cockpits of their cars for the first sprint race of the season. A 19-lap sprint race around the Shanghai International Circuit gave fans some extra action ahead of the grand prix on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton got away well from pole position, moving to the inside to cover off Max Verstappen and maintain the lead through the opening corners. Further back, Charles Leclerc was applying pressure to Oscar Piastri for P3 into the extremely long first corner, although he couldn’t make the overtake. Leclerc dropped to P5 by the end of the opening lap after a late-braking move by George Russell in the hairpin.
In the middle of the field, Lando Norris struggled with pace despite looking quite strong during Friday’s practice session. On the opening lap, Norris dropped to P9 after dipping a wheel on the grass in turn six, having started the race in P6. Like many other drivers in the race, he also reported higher-than-expected tyre wear.
The story was very different on the other side of the McLaren garage. Verstappen spent the first half of the race nibbling on the DRS range of Hamilton. Near the halfway point of the 19-lap race, Verstappen was close to challenging Hamilton but quickly dropped outside of DRS range a few laps later. This allowed Piastri to attack Verstappen in the closing half of the race.
After many laps looking at the rear wing of the Red Bull, Piastri saw an opportunity to take P2 with a dive up the inside of the hairpin on lap 15. Verstappen made little effort to defend against the move, accepting his fate to stand on the bottom step of the podium. Hamilton was too far ahead to pursue.
Both Ferrari cars seemed strong, coming alive at the end of the race. Leclerc was all over the back of Russell, looking to overtake in the closing laps of the race. Despite a good effort, he was not able to promote himself to P4 while new teammate Hamilton took victory by nearly seven seconds.
The race was not without incident. Jack Doohan collided with Nico Hulkenberg in the hairpin while attempting a late lunge on the Sauber on the final lap. There was a small traffic jam as many cars took evasive action to avoid hitting the spun cars.
The action isn’t over in Shanghai. The Chinese Grand Prix will take place tomorrow afternoon.
| 1 | L. Norris | 26 |  | |
| 2 | M. Verstappen | 24 | -2 | |
| 3 | G. Russell | 20 | -6 | |
| 4 | A. Antonelli | 14 | -12 | |
| 5 | A. Albon | 10 | -16 | |
| 1 | McLaren | 35 | | |
| 2 | Mercedes | 34 | -1 | |
| 3 | Red Bull | 24 | -11 | |
| 4 | Ferrari | 17 | -18 |  |
| 5 | Williams | 10 | -25 |  |
