Peter Lyon
March 23, 2025
Picking up his third career victory in F1, Australian Oscar Piastri won the Chinese Grand Prix with a dominant drive from pole position. This win turned out to be McLaren’s 50th one-two finish. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, who had in first win for Ferrari in Saturday’s Sprint race, had a very frustrating finish to just his second race for the Prancing Horse when his car was disqualified for a technical infringement after the race.
Following his teammate Lando Norris’s triumph in the season opener in Australia, Piastri’s victory once again proved that McLaren has an incredibly fast car. In a car whose brakes were failing, Norris only narrowly managed to hold off a fast-finishing George Russell in his Mercedes, and hang on for a one-two result. Max Verstappen finished fourth for Red Bull with fifth and sixth picked up by Ferrari, with both, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton being summarily disqualified for technical reasons.
The skid blocks on Hamilton’s Ferrari’s underbelly were discovered to be thinner than the permitted thickness following the routine inspections of the vehicles in parc fermé. Pierre Gasly of Alpine and Leclerc were also eliminated because their vehicles were deemed to be underweight.
To make sure the car doesn’t run below the minimum riding height, the skid blocks, which are a part of the board underneath the vehicle, must be a certain depth following the race. Ferrari acknowledged in a statement that they miscalculated Hamilton’s tire wear and that Leclerc’s one-stop strategy made the car underweight, but that there “was no intention to gain any advantage” for either driver.
With a perfect, well-paced drive from pole-to-win, Piastri dominated what was essentially a processional race, while Norris moved up to second at the beginning to give McLaren a dominant position from which they consolidated. Although tire-wear management became a minor issue, Norris managed to survive a late-race brake issue, and Ferrari switched Hamilton and Leclerc in the middle of the race, but they were unable to challenge the leaders.
With 44 points, Norris is still leading the world championship, ahead of Verstappen (36), Russell (35), and Piastri (34).
It was Piastri’s first victory in China and his third overall. He had already won two races the previous season, making this his most successful start in Formula One in just two years. After a lengthy absence from the top step in China, his team also relished the victory in Shanghai with their 50th one-two. They last raised the flag here with Hamilton in 2011.
CARLIST THOUGHTS
Let’s not take anything away from the winning McLarens today, especially Piastri who drove superbly for his third overall P1, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who expected a little more pace from the Ferraris, most notably from 7-time world champ Hamilton after he captured the Sprint race win in such convincing style on Saturday. With a fast car and four wins at Japan’s Suzuka Grand Prix, Hamilton in his Ferrari must be odds-on favorite to win against Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who has three Suzuka wins under his belt.
