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SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 23: Race winner Oscar Piastri of Australia and McLaren celebrates in parc ferme during the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 23, 2025 in Shanghai, China.
(Photo: Steven Tee/LAT Images via McLaren)

Oscar Piastri Converts 1st F1 Pole to Win in Chinese Grand Prix

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Oscar Piastri capitalized on his first pole position in Formula 1 to win the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday (March 23). He was followed home by the second McLaren of Lando Norris to score maximum points for the team, with Mercedes’ George Russell taking third place.

“It’s been an incredible weekend from start to finish,” Piastri told Sky Sports after the race. “The car’s been pretty mega the whole time. I think today was a bit of a surprise with how different the tire behaved but just proud of the whole weekend. This is what I feel like I deserved from last week.”

Max Verstappen found some speed late in the proceedings, initially having fallen back to sixth place on the opening lap, but taking advantage of pit-stop strategies and better tire wear to move past the two Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc for fourth.

After the race, the Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc as well as Pierre Gasly‘s Alpine were handed disqualifications; Gasly and Leclerc for having underweight cars and Hamilton for his Ferrari showing excessive skid wear, suggesting it was running too close to the ground. This promoted Esteban Ocon to fifth, Andrea Kimi Antonelli to sixth, Alexander Albon to seventh and Oliver Bearman to eighth while Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll were awarded ninth and 10th place, respectively.

How It Unfolded

With each team only having two sets of hard compound tires for the weekend, no-one had chosen to run them before the main race, leaving some uncertainty about their durability. As a result, the teams were still asking whether one or two stops would be the fastest way to the checkered flag. The majority of cars lined up on the grid with the yellow-striped medium, which offered greater grip levels for the start.

Piastri had a slightly slower launch than the Mercedes of Russell but still managed to hold the lead into the first turn, a position he maintained for the majority of the race. Norris also had a strong start, passing Russell to take second place and setting off in chase of his teammate.

An uncharacteristically poor launch from Verstappen allowed the two Ferraris through, dropping him from fourth to sixth position. Hamilton also managed to jump the second Ferrari of Leclerc, the latter damaging his front wing as he defended a little too aggressively.

As the leaders settled into their respective positions, a rear brake fire on Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin forced him into an early retirement just four laps into the race.

At the front, Norris was challenging the lead McLaren, at times closing within one second, but Piastri was managing to pull away before the critical straights. Even at this early stage, Norris’ front tires were beginning to show greater degradation as a result of following in dirty air.

The Kick Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto was also proving a handful, having a spin before returning to the track.

As the race neared the ten-lap mark, there were no changes to the running order, with Piastri pulling out a 1.6-second lead to Norris, followed by Russell, Hamilton, Leclerc, and Verstappen.

Antonelli was 1.5-seconds behind the Red Bull, and the two Racing Bulls of Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar held eighth and ninth, the latter enjoying a much better weekend after his traumatic early exit in Melbourne.

On lap 11, Gasly and Tsunoda were the first cars to pull the trigger and pit for hard compound tires. The Shanghai circuit is known to benefit those who pit before their nearest competitors, a move referred to as an undercut. The effect proved to be the case again this weekend, with Tsunoda gaining a position when Antonelli pitted a lap later.

Red Bull and Ferrari both took note, pitting Verstappen and Hamilton on lap 14.

Piastri and Russell followed one lap later, allowing Norris to take the lead, but the power of the undercut on this track meant that Norris was unlikely to hold the position for long.

As Norris exited the pits from his own stop, Russell was able to squeeze through and steal a position, putting him between the two McLarens. Albon, who was yet to pit, now led the race for an unexpected 29th birthday present.

Norris followed closely behind Russell, gaining a DRS advantage down the pit straight, and retaking his position on lap 18, just one lap after he’d lost it.

Despite having a damaged front wing, Leclerc had better pace than the sister Ferrari of Hamilton in front, and the team asked the pair to switch places. They did so on lap 21, and Leclerc began chasing down the Mercedes of Russell. Verstappen continued to hold sixth position over 3.5 seconds behind the two Ferraris.

As Leclerc fought to close the gap to Russell, attention turned to a second pit stop, with Russell being told he should stay on track and avoid the extra 20 seconds that stopping again would entail.

With their two cars in first and second place, McLaren now had a dilemma: Stay on track and risk being caught by cars on fresh new tires or adopt the same one-stop strategy as Mercedes?

On lap 38, Hamilton stopped for a second set of hard tires, while all the other front runners opted for the one-stop strategy. The McLaren team was also advising Norris that light rain might complicate things during the final phase of the race.

As the race entered its closing stages, it became clear that the one-stop strategy was working for those who had stayed out, with Hamilton unable to find enough pace to challenge those ahead. The Racing Bulls also suffered from their decision to stop twice, falling back to disappointing 15th and 16th positions that didn’t reflect the strong pace they’d shown across the weekend.

With just six laps remaining, Norris had a late-race scare, reporting problems with his brake pedal, and a strong-finishing Russell posing a very real threat.

Verstappen finally found some speed in his Red Bull, managing to pass Leclerc to retake his starting position of fourth on lap 53.

At the front, Piastri had managed his pace and tires to perfection, never being seriously troubled for the lead and taking his third F1 win almost 10 seconds ahead of his teammate.

2025 F1 Chinese Grand Prix Results

Next up for the F1 grid is the Japanese Grand Prix from Japan’s famous Suzuka Circuit. Coverage will begin on ESPN at 1 a.m. ET, Sunday, April 6.

Peter Molloy began following Formula 1 during the 1985 Australian Grand Prix. He cheered for a certain Ayrton Senna, who was driving the same black and gold colors as a toy F1 car that Pete had been given. Pete continued to be a fan of Senna throughout his childhood. Fast forward many moons, and Peter now combines significant journalistic experience with decades of watching F1 to cover the latest on-track and off-track action.