SHANGHAI: Australian Oscar Piastri roared back from season-opening disappointment to win the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix in a McLaren one-two on Sunday while Ferrari had both drivers disqualified.

Lando Norris held on with fading brakes for second place ahead of Mercedes rival George Russell to stretch his championship lead, over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, to eight points after two race weekends.

Verstappen was fourth with Ferr­ari’s Charles Leclerc and Saturday sprint winner Lewis Hamilton finishing fifth and sixth before being disqualified when their cars failed post-race technical checks.

Leclerc’s was underweight while Hamilton’s had suffered excessive skid wear.

Piastri’s win from pole position denied Norris a third victory in a row, including last year’s Abu Dhabi season-ender, but left champions McLaren still unbeaten this season.

“Mega job guys. The car was very, very lovely,” Piastri said over the team radio after taking the chequered flag — an echo of Verstappen’s ‘simply lovely’ catchphrase heard so often in the past.

“I’m just so proud of the whole weekend. This is what I feel like I deserved from last week,” added the Australian, who finished ninth in Melbourne after starting on the front row and skidding off.

Norris finished 9.748 seconds behind on a similar one-stop strategy and after struggling with a ‘long’ brake pedal that became critical towards the end.

The Briton now has 44 points to Verstappen’s 36 and Russell’s 35. Piastri, who was second in the sprint, is on 34.

McLaren are 21 points clear of Mercedes, with Italian rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli moving up to sixth following the Ferrari disqualification.

“It’s like my worst nightmare,” said Norris of his brake issue. “If I have a nightmare it’s when the brakes are failing and I was losing two, three, four seconds the last couple of laps. So I was a bit scared but we survived and got to the end,”

HAAS POINTS

Esteban Ocon collected Haas’s first points of the campaign in fifth with Alex Albon moving up to seventh for Williams on his 29th birthday.

British rookie Oliver Bearman was eighth, after finishing 10th, and Lance Stroll ninth with Carlos Sainz 10th for Williams despite them finishing 12th and 13th on track, respectively.

That was because Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who had been 11th and would have moved into the points, was also disqualified for his car being underweight.

Verstappen lost two places at the start, dropping from fourth to sixth as both the Ferraris went past, while Norris, from third on the grid, overtook Russell and slotted into second behind Piastri.

Leclerc suffered a broken front wing after he and Hamilton made contact as they went through, the front left of the Monegasque’s car hitting the rear of Hamilton’s as the Briton moved across.

“I’ve been hit by someone,” exclaimed Hamilton.

Despite the missing end-plate, Ferrari did not change the wing at the first pitstops, with Leclerc picking up speed instead and Hamilton obeying a call to let him through on lap 21.

Hamilton pitted again on lap 38 as others eked out the tyres to the finish but the strategy backfired with the gap to Verstappen too much to make up.

Verstappen passed Leclerc three laps from the end to finish where he started on the grid.

Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto spun into the gravel on the opening lap while his manager, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, was the sole retirement.

“I cannot brake, no brakes,” Spa­niard Alonso told his team on lap four.

Russell pitted on lap 15 and got back ahead of Norris, who came in a lap later, on the undercut but the McLaren driver retook second place with the assistance of DRS down the inside on lap 18.

Albon led briefly as the Thai went longer on the medium tyres before pitting on lap 21.

Verstappen’s new team-mate Liam Lawson started from the pitlane after qualifying last and the team making changes to the setup. The struggling New Zealander still finished far from the points in 15th place.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2025