Piastri leads McLaren one-two in China
McLaren's Oscar Piastri stands on the podium during the national anthems after winning the Chinese Grand Prix alongside second placed McLaren's Lando Norris and third placed Mercedes' George Russell. PHOTO: REUTERS
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
14 hours ago
- Express Tribune
More time to prepare for Wimbledon: Sinner
Jannik Sinner leaves Halle after his second round defeat to prepare for Wimbledon. PHOTO: AFP World number one Jannik Sinner is looking forward to a bit of unexpected down-time after his second round loss at Halle, to better prepare for Wimbledon. The Italian defending champion went down 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to the 45th-ranked Kazakh Alexander Bublik in Thursday's second round in the German grasscourt Wimbledon warm-up. "I have to accept what happened. I'm now going to have a few days rest before Wimbledon, which are going to do me good" said Sinner. He now has 10 days between Thursday's loss and the start of his Wimbledon campaign, where he seeks to dethrone Carlos Alcaraz, his conqueror in a five-set epic French Open final at Roland Garros earlier this month. Halle in 2024 is the only grass court title Sinner has to his name. He made it to the semi-finals in Wimbledon two years ago. Last year he was beaten in the quarters. "Honestly a little break is going to do me good," the 23-year-old told Sky Italia. "I came here (to Halle), I gave it my all after the Roland Garros defeat, it wasn't easy," he added. "Despite everything I'm happy enough. "I've played two matches before Wimbledon, if there'd been more it would have been even better. "Now I've got to boost myself both mentally and physically, that takes a little time," but for Wimbledon, "everything will be fine". Sinner's loss to Alcaraz at the French Open was his first defeat in a Grand Slam final. Prior to that defeat Sinner also lost to Alcaraz in the Rome Open final just after returning from a three-month doping suspension following his Australian Open success. Zverev overcomes stomach bug to set up Halle semi-final with Medvedev Alexander Zverev's quest for a first grasscourt title took an unexpected turn at the Halle Open on Friday when the German second seed was forced to sprint from court to vomit mid-match before rallying to defeat Italy's Flavio Cobolli 6-4 7-6(8). Second seed Zverev started the match on the front foot by breaking in the first game but as he was serving in the second, he requested a toilet break to throw up and bolted down the tunnel. Once he returned, Zverev struggled with the intensity at first and clearly looked unwell, bending over in exhaustion after points and gasping for breath after a marathon rally. "I felt fine before the match. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I felt really, really bad. I felt ill, went to throw up and then 15 minutes later I felt OK again," Zverev said. "I don't know what it was, I've never experienced that before. I hope I'll be fine in the next couple of hours when the adrenaline settles. After that I think it was a pretty good match." Although nowhere near 100%, Zverev held serve as he slowly drew on his reserves of energy, firing his first ace of the match on set point. The second set was an even contest as Cobolli relied on his movement to continue troubling Zverev, but the German eventually triumphed in a close tiebreak, finishing the match with 22 winners and 12 points at the net. The semi-final pits Zverev against Russian third seed Daniil Medvedev, a familiar foe who holds a 12-7 head-to-head advantage and has won their last three meetings. "I think he's the guy that I played the most in my career. I'm looking forward to it," Zverev added. "A lot of things happened in the last 18 months. He's one of my toughest opponents in my career. It's going to be a great match and I'm really looking forward to facing him." Medvedev moved into the semi-finals with a 6-4 6-3 victory over American Alex Michelsen despite suffering a nosebleed in the second set which forced the 2021 Halle runner-up to take a medical timeout. However, the Russian served well to deny his opponent a single break point opportunity and wrapped up the contest in 85 minutes as he reached the last four without dropping a set, with the only thing causing problems being the shadows on the court. "The shadows on the court made the conditions quite difficult. It took some time to get used to it. It was then better in the second set," said Medvedev, who will return to the top 10 ahead of Wimbledon.
Express Tribune
2 days ago
- Express Tribune
Juventus thump Al Ain in Club World Cup
JuventusPortuguese forward Francisco Conceicao celebrated with Randal Kolo Muani as they thrashed Al Ain in Washington. Photo: AFP Randal Kolo Muani and Francisco Conceicao both bagged braces as Juventus hammered Al Ain 5-0 on Wednesday in their Club World Cup opener following a trip to the White House. The Italian giants, who sent a delegation to visit US President Donald Trump earlier in the day, cruised to the top of Group G above Manchester City, who beat Wydad AC. Some Juventus players and staff were asked by Trump, whom they presented with a club shirt, whether they thought a woman would be able to make their first team. Trump appeared to be making a point against transgender athletes. Juve general manager Damien Comolli replied that the club had a "very good women's team". The Juventus players stayed silent but were far more comfortable speaking on the pitch as they dismantled UAE's Al Ain at Audi Field in front of 18,000 fans. Kolo Muani, who extended his loan from Paris Saint-Germain to play in the tournament in the United States, opened the scoring after 11 minutes with a header from Alberto Costa's cross. Juventus doubled their lead 10 minutes later when Conceicao, on loan from Porto, skipped away from one defender in the box before firing home with the help of a deflection. Turkish forward Kenan Yildiz netted the third after 31 minutes, carving out some space on the edge of the box and drilling in at the near post. French striker Kolo Muani grabbed his second with a deft finish in first-half stoppage time to pile on the misery for Al Ain. Kouame Autonne had a goal disallowed for offside for the UAE side before Conceicao struck again, benefitting from another slight deflection. Kolo Muani might have completed his hat-trick when sent through but goalkeeper Rui Patricio shut him down well, and Douglas Luiz blasted narrowly off-target late on. Juventus, who finished fourth in Serie A, are hoping to make up for a trophyless season with success in the United States this summer. Frustrated Madrid Federico Valverde missed a stoppage-time penalty as Real Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw by Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal in the Club World Cup on Wednesday. A large contingent of Real fans in a crowd of 62,415 at the Hard Rock Stadium were left frustrated after new manager Xabi Alonso's first game in charged ended with the points shared. For the Saudi club, with Italian Simone Inzaghi also making his debut on the bench, it was an impressive performance where they caused Real's defence plenty of problems before securing a hugely encouraging surprise result. Al-Hilal started off in effervescent fashion and went close in the 19th minute when Salem Aldawsari volleyed back in to the box and Marcos Leonardo's effort flew just wide. Renan Lodi had the ball in the net for the Saudi side but the effort was ruled out for offside from another dangerous break Aldawsari showed his pace but dragged his shot just wide. Real gradually gained more control over the game and Rodrygo went close in the 31st minute when he cut in from the right and his left-foot effort zipped just over the bar. But Real's quality was starting to shine through and they grabbed the lead in the 34th minute. Gonzalo, starting in place of the absent Kylian Mbappe, started the break from deep and a clever exchange of passes concluded with Rodrygo drilling a low ball into the box where Gonzalo, who had continued his run, provided a delicate finish. It was a classic counter-attacking goal but it did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the Saudi side who continued to press forward with energy. Four minutes before the break, they drew level when Raul Asencio was ruled to have pulled down Marcos Leonardo and Portugal international Ruben Neves calmly tucked away the penalty. The dangerous Aldawsari, who scored the winner for Saudi Arabia in their upset win over Argentina at the World Cup in Qatar, threatened again just before the break. But Real came out strongly after the interval with Arda Guler introduced at the break rattling the bar with a volley from a Vinicius Jr. cross. Moments later, Gonzalo brought a fine save out of Yassine Bounou with a firm header from a Vinicius crosss and then Valverde flashed a shot wide from 25 yards out.
Business Recorder
2 days ago
- Business Recorder
Juventus extend Adidas partnership to 2037 in $468mn deal
ROME: Juventus have extended their technical partnership with German sportswear giant Adidas until June 2037, in a deal worth 408 million euros ($468 million) over a decade, the Serie A club said in a statement. The current agreement between the two parties, which runs until June 2027, will remain unchanged, the Italian club said. The new contract will then take effect from the 2027-2028 season and cover all Juventus teams until the end of the 2036-2037 season. 'This renewal fills us with pride and testifies to the synergy between these two great companies,' said Maurizio Scanavino, Juventus Chief Executive Officer. Juventus, famed for their black and white shirts, said the valuation for the new agreement does not include additional royalties for exceeding certain sales volumes or variable components linked to sporting results. 'We're delighted to extend our partnership with the most decorated club in Italian football for a further 10 years,' said Sam Handy, General Manager of Adidas Football. Juventus have won the Italian league title more than any other rival club. Juventus and Adidas joined forces from the 2015/2016 season. The German sportswear group has a long-term partnership in place with English Premier League club Manchester United which runs until 2035, and also works with other teams including Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. Juventus said last month that U.S. carmaker Jeep will pay 69 million euros to become its main shirt sponsor until June 2028.
