Oscar Piastri led Lando Norris to a dominant McLaren one-two within the Chinese language Grand Prix forward of George Russell’s Mercedes.
Piastri’s calm, managed victory made it two wins from two for McLaren firstly of the season following Norris’ excellent drive within the moist in Melbourne final weekend.
The Australian led from pole and misplaced first place solely briefly within the interval across the leaders’ solely pit stops. Piastri was hardly ever greater than 4 seconds forward of Norris however all the time in management.
Norris was combating fading brakes within the closing laps however had sufficient of a bonus to carry Russell at bay.
Charles Leclerc drove an excellent race in a Ferrari with a broken entrance wing, his tempo forcing Ferrari to order team-mate Lewis Hamilton out of his manner.
However Leclerc misplaced fourth place to Purple Bull’s Max Verstappen with 4 laps to go because the world champion’s automotive discovered some tempo within the second half of the race.
Hamilton, who took an excellent victory within the shorter dash race on Saturday, resisted the decision for a few laps earlier than letting Leclerc by after which dropped again.
The seven-time champion made a second pit cease, whereas the opposite leaders all stayed out on their single set of laborious tyres, fitted at their solely pit stops.
The end result leaves Norris main the championship by 9 factors from Russell, with Piastri and Verstappen an extra level adrift.
It was a copybook win for Piastri, the third of his F1 profession, and based on the benefit he earned by scoring his maiden pole place on Saturday.
Piastri held off a problem from Russell off the road by forcing the Briton to the within, and the Mercedes’ compromised line allowed Norris to go Russell earlier than the top of the lengthy Flip One, Two, Three advanced.
As soon as operating one-two, the McLaren drivers settled into a snug race, disrupted solely when Russell stopped on the identical lap as Piastri, one lap earlier than Norris.
As Norris got here 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 quickly after, and the McLaren driver was in a position to go the Mercedes with an incredible transfer into Flip One a lap later.
Russell held on to Norris for 10 laps or so, earlier than the McLaren edged additional forward as McLaren requested Piastri to hurry up a little bit to permit Norris to have some respiratory area from the Mercedes if a second cease was required.
As soon as it grew to become clear that the laborious tyres would final to the top, the highest three positions have been set to the top, although Norris was combating a protracted brake pedal within the last 10 laps.
With 5 laps to go, Norris was instructed to verify he completed the race with “no laborious braking”, his race engineer Will Joseph underlining that within the context of the championship, “18 factors is healthier than no factors in any respect”.
With two laps to go, Norris was actually struggling, and his eight-second lead was reduce to only one by Russell on the ultimate lap, however he survived.
