Little more than 24 hours after the conclusion of the sprint race, the drivers were back in action around the Shanghai International Circuit for the FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN CHINESE GRAND PRIX 2025 — a 56-lap showdown around the nearly 5.5km circuit that hosts the second round of the Formula One season. Oscar Piastri led the field off the grid, having secured pole position for the first time in his career.
He maintained his lead into the first corner of the grand prix, but only just. George Russell had a better launch from the front row, forcing Piastri to squeeze him to the inside to prevent the overtake into the first corner. This allowed Lando Norris to jump to P2 on the outside of the long turn one, which was critical for Norris’ race.
Directly behind, Max Verstappen struggled with oversteer on the outside of the first corner, losing out to both Ferraris. It was not entirely smooth sailing for the Italian team. Charles Leclerc took a very tight inside line in the second corner to get by Verstappen. He took a little too much kerb, suffering a slight snap of oversteer that caused him to brush his teammate. Leclerc tore off the endplate of his front wing on the rear tyre of teammate Lewis Hamilton.
The front wing damage appeared to improve the performance of Leclerc’s Ferrari, keeping pace with Hamilton during the first stint. This was potentially because of improved aerodynamics caused by the increased flexibility of the damaged wing. Ferrari opted not to change the wing during the first pit stop.
Piastri rejoined the race narrowly alongside Lance Stroll after pitting for new tyres, which was critical to help him maintain the net lead. Norris was less lucky when he pitted the following lap, coming out side-by-side with Russell into the first corner, dropping down to P3. He was able to retake the position down the main straight a couple of laps later, returning the race to a McLaren 1-2.
After the pit stops, Leclerc found himself again behind his teammate. Appearing to have a strong pace, Ferrari decided to tell the duo to swap positions. This was delayed slightly as Hamilton overtook Lance Stroll in the sole remaining Aston Martin, causing Leclerc to drop back slightly. After some more uncomfortable exchanges over the team radio between Hamilton and his new race engineer, Hamilton eventually unleashed Leclerc in turn one.
Leclerc justified the position swap, pulling away from Hamilton to chase down Russell in P3. He lingered within DRS range of the Mercedes for nearly ten laps but dropped back after suffering a moment of oversteer in the hairpin on lap 30.
The middle stage of the race was all about saving tyres. Based on the tyre degradation experienced during the sprint race yesterday, it seemed like the race was an obvious two-stopper, but the hard tyre seemed very durable and made a one-stop race possible. Lance Stroll showcased the lifespan of the hard tyres, taking his first set a staggering 36 laps. Meanwhile, Oliver Bearman showcases the case advantage of a fresh medium, cruising past car after car in the hairpin to put himself up into the top ten.
Ferrari was the only front-running team to gamble on the two-stop strategy with Lewis Hamilton, pitting him out of P5 for another set of hard tyres. It wouldn’t pay off, leaving him destined for a distant P6 finish.
The two McLaren drivers were able to pull away from Russell to a comfortable 1-2, with Norris urging his teammate to speed up to avoid ruining his tyres in the dirty air. But it wasn’t all comfort for Norris, who began suffering from a mechanical issue in the closing stages of the race, causing his brake pedal to get progressively long as the laps ticked down. He was still able to nurse home the car to P2.
Further back, Leclerc came under pressure from Verstappen in the final five laps. Although Ferrari seemed to be gentle on the tyres in the sprint race, the same could not be said over the race distance on Sunday. Verstappen was able to take P4 from Leclerc with an unusual sweep around the outside of the third corner on lap 53. Leclerc briefly tried to fight into turn six but had to accept the demotion to P5.
But it was Oscar Piastri who would cross the finish line first, making up for misfortune in the wet season opener in Australia and leading McLaren to their first 1-2 finish of the season. This marks the Aussie’s third career victory.
Everyone now has a week off from racing before the season’s first triple-header. Next on the calendar is the Japanese Grand Prix on the weekend of April 6.
UPDATE: Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly were disqualified after the race for being underweight. Each car weighed in at 799kg, which is 1kg under the minimum weight requirement. To make matters worse for Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton was also disqualified because his rear skid block was under the minimum thickness. Although Gasly’s did not score points in the race, Ferrari’s double disqualification loses the team 18 points and drops them to P5 in the World Constructors’ Championship.
| Pos. | Driver | Laps | Time | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 56 | 1:30:55.026 | 25 | ||
| 2 | 56 | +9.748 | 18 | ||
| 3 | 56 | +11.097 | 15 | ||
| 4 | 56 | +16.656 | 12 | ||
| DSQ | 56 | +23.211 | |||
| DSQ | 56 | +25.381 |  | ||
| 5 | 56 | +49.969 | 10 | ||
| 6 | 56 | +53.748 | 8 | ||
| 7 | 56 | +56.321 | 6 | ||
| 8 | 56 | +61.303 | 4 | ||
| DSQ | 56 | +67.195 | |||
| 9 | 56 | +70.204 | 2 | ||
| 10 | 56 | +76.387 | 1 | ||
| 11 | 56 | +78.875 | |||
| 12 | 56 | +81.147 | |||
| 13 | 56 | +88.401 | |||
| 14 | 55 | +1 Lap | |||
| 15 | 55 | +1 Lap | |||
| 16 | 55 | +1 Lap | |||
| DNF | 4 |
| 1 | L. Norris | 44 |  | |
| 2 | M. Verstappen | 36 | -8 | |
| 3 | G. Russell | 35 | -9 | |
| 4 | O. Piastri | 34 | -10 |  |
| 5 | K. Antonelli | 22 | -22 |  |
| 1 | McLaren | 78 | | |
| 2 | Mercedes | 57 | -21 | |
| 3 | Red Bull | 36 | -42 | |
| 4 | Williams | 17 | -61 | |
| 5 | Ferrari | 17 | -61 | |
