Oscar Piastri led Lando Norris to a dominant McLaren one-two in the Chinese Grand Prix ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes.
Piastri’s calm, controlled victory made it two wins from two for McLaren at the start of the season following Norris’ outstanding drive in the wet in Melbourne last weekend.
The Australian led from pole and lost first place only briefly in the period around the leaders’ only pit stops. Piastri was rarely more than four seconds ahead of Norris but always in control.
Norris was struggling with fading brakes in the closing laps but had enough of an advantage to hold Russell at bay.
Charles Leclerc drove an outstanding race in a Ferrari with a damaged front wing, his pace forcing Ferrari to order team-mate Lewis Hamilton out of his way.
But Leclerc lost fourth place to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen with four laps to go as the world champion’s car found some pace in the second half of the race.
Hamilton, who took an outstanding victory in the shorter sprint race on Saturday, resisted the call for a couple of laps before letting Leclerc by and then dropped back.
The seven-time champion made a second pit stop, while the other leaders all stayed out on their single set of hard tyres, fitted at their only pit stops.
The result leaves Norris leading the championship by nine points from Russell, with Piastri and Verstappen a further point adrift.
It was a copybook win for Piastri, the third of his F1 career, and founded on the advantage he earned by scoring his maiden pole position on Saturday.
Piastri held off a challenge from Russell off the line by forcing the Briton to the inside, and the Mercedes’ compromised line allowed Norris to pass Russell before the end of the long Turn One, Two, Three complex.
Once running one-two, the McLaren drivers settled into a comfortable race, disrupted only when Russell stopped on the same lap as Piastri, one lap before Norris.
As Norris came 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 soon after, and the McLaren driver was able to pass the Mercedes with a great move into Turn One a lap later.
Russell hung on to Norris for 10 laps or so, before the McLaren edged further ahead as McLaren asked Piastri to speed up a little to allow Norris to have some breathing space from the Mercedes if a second stop was required.
Once it became clear that the hard tyres would last to the end, the top three positions were set to the end, even though Norris was struggling with a long brake pedal in the final 10 laps.
With five laps to go, Norris was told to make sure he finished the race with “no hard braking”, his race engineer Will Joseph underlining that in the context of the championship, “18 points is better than no points at all”.
With two laps to go, Norris was really struggling, and his eight-second lead was cut to just one by Russell on the final lap, but he survived.
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