Oscar Piastri wins Chinese Grand Prix while Lewis Hamilton and two other drivers disqualified

(CNN) — Oscar Piastri won the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday and his teammate Lando Norris finished second in a dominant race for McLaren, while three drivers – including Lewis Hamilton – were later disqualified.

Piastri started the race on pole and put in assured performance to lead for almost the entire race in Shanghai to eventually finish almost 10 seconds ahead of Norris.

It is the Australian’s third F1 Grand Prix victory of his career and cements McLaren’s position as the pre-season favorites to knock four-time defending champion Red Bull off the top of the drivers’ championship race.

The two McLaren cars were by far the fastest in China with Piastri holding his lead at the front of the race throughout, except when he had to make a pit stop, and easily overcoming any challengers that threatened his lead.

“It’s been an incredible weekend, the car has been pretty mega,” the 23-year-old said afterwards. “Today was a surprise, how differently the tyres behaved. This feels like what I deserved from last week.

“Very, very happy just, yeah, very happy. The hard was a much better tyre than everyone expected, so to go all the way to the end was a bit of a surprise, but a happy surprise.”

The result means that McLaren have won both races of the 2025 season so far after Norris finished first in Australia last week.

Norris didn’t have an easy race though, having to battle break issues and a stiff test from Mercedes’ George Russell to maintain his hold on second. Russell finished in third, over five seconds ahead of reigning champion Max Verstappen.

“The start I was hoping for, but then George got me in the pit stops,” Norris said after the race. “I was a little nervous, but we were better in the second stint. Oscar drove well, he deserved the win. I’m happy with second, good points and great points for the team with a 1-2.

“(The brake pedal) was my worst nightmare, I was losing two, three, four seconds the last two laps. It was scary but we made it to the end.”

Lewis Hamilton, who on Saturday claimed his first-ever win for Ferrari as he cruised to a dominant victory in the sprint race, finished the race in sixth with his teammate Charles Leclerc finishing fifth.

However, a few hours after the race had ended, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) announced that Hamilton, Leclerc and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly were all disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix.

According to the FIA, the plank underneath Hamilton’s car was below the allowed minimum thickness. As a result of the disqualification, Hamilton will receive no points for the drivers’ world championship from this race.

Leclerc and Gasly were both disqualified for having underweight cars.

Ferrari said in a statement that “there was no intention to gain any advantage” and that the team “will learn from what happened today.”

The result means that Norris maintains his position atop the drivers’ championship standings after two races, now leading Verstappen by eight points. Piastri vaults up to fourth thanks to his victoryn, now 10 points behind Norris.

If the first two races of the new season are anything to go by, it could be an enthralling battle for the drivers’ championship title this year.

Before the race there were tributes paid to Eddie Jordan, the former team owner who gave seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher his F1 debut, who had died earlier in the week.

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