23-03-2025
Oscar Piastri Wins the Chinese Grand Prix From Maiden Pole
The rain stayed away in Shanghai as Oscar Piastri easily turned his first career pole into his third career win Sunday morning in the China Grand Prix.
Piastri set a record time in qualifying for the Grand Prix after finishing second in Saturday's Sprint Race behind Lewis Hamilton. At the start of Sunday's Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri had to defend against Mercedes' George Russell, who went wide into the first corner, hoping to cut the McLaren off for the lead. When he successfully defended, it opened the slot for his teammate Lando Norris to push through from third to second en route to a McLaren 1-2 finish as the duo hopes to repeat their Constructor's championship while both vying for the WDC.
Last week, Piastri passed Hamilton on the final lap to milk another point out of his disappointing finish following a spin and near retirement after getting stuck in the grass at his home Grand Prix. With a win, Piastri moves up to third in the fourth in the driver's championship behind his teammate, Max Verstappen, and Russell. Forcing McLaren to continue to have an honest conversation about having two championship-caliber drivers.
"I hope so," Piastri told F1TV when asked if this win is the start of a campaign. "It's been an incredible weekend from start to finish, the car has been pretty mega the whole time. I think today was a bit of a surprise with how different the tires behaved."
Long stints on the hard tires made almost every team attempt to make a one-pit-stop race work for them. Pierre Gasley and Yuki Tsunoda led the undercut coming in on laps 10 and 11, while Alex Albon went the longest on the opening stint, not pitting until lap 20 to lead only his second lap of an F1 Grand Prix.
The McLarens stacked their pits on laps 13 and 14, with the leader coming in first, Piastri made it out in front of Lance Stroll to fall back into the correct order. On the next lap, Norris exited the pit lane into a battle between George Russell and Stroll, the latter who still needed to pit but was clear to fight for position. In the scrum, Russell took the position back that he lost to Norris on the opening lap. Norris would take it back in the next two laps.
Russell settled for his second third-place finish in a row to open the season, followed by Max Verstappen. The two Ferraris followed after an opening lap collision between the two set them back. While battling Verstappen in the opening corners, Charles Leclerc overcorrected and bounced into his teammate, Hamilton, damaging his own front wing.
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