Key events
Lap 41/56: The broadcasters have shown precious little of Oscar Piastri at the front of this race. That’s primarily because no car has come anything like close to the race leader. It’d be a huge shock if he doesn’t take home the W today.
Lap 40/56: Bearman might fancy his first ever points as an F1 driver today. He’s powered past Pierre Gasly. This is turning into a good day for Haas after their struggles in Melbourne last week.
Lap 37/56: Max Verstappen has mustered some speed at last! He was on Hamilton’s tail – but the Ferrari man has opted to pit, a sluggish pit at that, which means Verstappen is now fifth and can close on Leclerc.
Hamilton hasn’t lost too much ground, he’s sixth after a second stop.
Lap 36/56: Ollie Bearman’s signature move is to sneakily overtake, before saying a quick “Ciao” on his radio. Lovely stuff.
The McLaren radio also believes there’s a “small risk of rain” towards the end of the race. That could throw a spanner in the proverbial works.
Lap 34/56: At the back of the field, the likes of Bearman and Lawson are using their fresher tyres to make moves and overtake. The Saubers are looking … slow.
“Can you tell him to speed up a bit, cos I’m in the dirty air and I don’t want to f*ck up my tyres.”
That’s the message from Lando Norris on the McLaren radio re Oscar Piastri.
Lap 32/56: You know you’re old when even the fathers of professional sportspeople look young. Ollie Bearman’s dad David has just been shown on TV and he looks about 30. The Haas driver is only 19, of course.
Lap 30/56: Norris is at risk of an undercut from Russell and he’s been told by the McLaren team on the radio that Piastri is going to help him. Zak Brown’s side want a one-two in this race, but Norris needs to put some distance between himself and the pack to achieve it.
This is crazy, by the way.
Lap 27/56: Bearman finally heads for the pit lane and swaps his hard tyres for mediums. He emerges back out in 17th.
Lap 25/56: Hamilton is having a bit of a set-to with the Ferrari engineers on the radio. You don’t tell Lewis what to do, guys.
Can the two red cars close on Russell to challenge for the podium?
Lap 23/56: There’s a very watchable tussle going on between Ollie Bearman and Lance Stroll for seventh spot. Neither of those drivers have stopped yet – both are on hard tyres – so they’re understandably pushing hard at this stage.
Lap 22/56: It’s strange to see Verstappen in the middle of the field and feeling so irrelevant to the outcome of this race. It doesn’t feel like the Red Bulls are going to challenge the podium.
The Ferraris, on the other hand, are generating some pace. Both are closing on third placed Russell.
Lap 20/56: Norris goes again, overtaking Albon to retake second position. Williams are ordering their driver to box; he’s stayed out there longer than anyone else and on medium tyres.
Lap 18/56: Lando Norris employs DRS and overtakes Russell. What a battle we’ve had between the two Brits already.
Norris is now third, Russell fourth, while Piastri is back at the front, with Albon second.
Ferrari have opted not to change out Leclerc’s front wing. It was just a tyre change for him. Interesting. They must have channelled their inner C3PO.
“That’s funny, the damage doesn’t look too bad from out here.”
Lap 16/56: Leclerc and Norris now pit …. and Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin gets in Norris’ way as he emerges from the pit lane, meaning Russell has an advantage over the McLaren driver.
Alex Albon is now leading this race, having not pitted yet.
Lap 14/56: Verstappen, Piastri and others are pitting now, too.
George Russell has said on the Mercedes radio that he thinks his car can handle just the one stop … but now comes into the pit lane.
Lap 13/56: Pierre Gasly was the first driver into the pit lane and now plenty are following him. Two-stop policies are very much the order of the day. Tsunoda and Antonelli have both pitted and the RB has undercut his rival to climb up a spot.
Hamilton is coming in next.
Lap 10/56: The gap is widening between fifth and sixth, with both Ferraris looking pretty quick and Verstappen struggling for speed. Piastri is ever so slightly extending his lead at the front, too. Now up to two seconds.
How the top 10 currently stands:
1. Piastri
2. Norris
3. Russell
4. Hamilton
5. Leclerc
6. Verstappen
7. Antonelli
8. Tsunoda
9. Hadjar
10. Ocon
Lap 7/56: Only Lance Stroll, Ollie Bearman, Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto – the latter who’s just had a spin-out and is dead last – are using the harder tyres, so could be going for a one-stop policy. The rest are on medium tyres.
Lap 6/56: Fernando Alonso has no brakes and looks set to retire. That’s such a shame for the veteran Aston Martin driver.
Lap 3/56: We had a yellow flag warning out there very briefly while the track was cleared of debris. Leclerc is saying on the Ferrari radio that he thinks his car can survive a little while. At the back, Liam Lawson – who started in the pit lane – has made up a cpiple of places, leaving the two Saubers at the rear of the field.
Lap 1/56: Verstappen says “Charles has a broken front wing” so clearly there was contact between his Red Bull and the Frenchman’s Ferrari.
Further down the grid, Andrea Kimi Antonelli has jumped ahead of the two Racing Bulls, while British rookie Ollie Bearman is struggling; he’s been passed by a couple of cars.
Piastri holds George Russell off on the first turn and Lando Norris nips into second in the process. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have squeezed past Max Verstappen too!
LIGHTS OUT
AND AWAY WE GO!
Here’s a reminder of how they start, by the way. It’s advantage Piastri and McLaren.
Lewis Hamilton won the sprint race yesterday after starting on pole. Can he produce more heroics in Ferrari red today? He sits fifth on the grid.
The cars, teams and various others are lined up on the starting grid and we’re not far off lights-out time. Excitement is certainly. building in Shanghai.
Debate is still raging as to whether drivers will go for a one-stop or a two-stop strategy for the race. Conditions aren’t quite as hot and sunny as they were for qualifying on Saturday.
Preamble
It was an intriguing day of firsts in the Shanghai heat on Saturday. Lewis Hamilton picked up his first win of any kind in Ferrari colours, winning the sprint race – the first Ferrari win in the short format since it was introduced in 2021; then Oscar Piastri picked up his first ever pole, sealing top spot in qualifying ahead of his teammate Lando Norris, who was third and struggling for top speed, despite his Grand Prix win in Australia last week.
Breaking up the McLaren stronghold is another Brit, George Russell, who produced a white-hot final qualifying lap to sit P2. A place on the front row isn’t quite the clean air Piastri will enjoy racing into, but it gives the Mercedes driver a sporting chance. Max Verstappen is fourth with the two Ferraris of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc lurking just behind.
At the back of the grid sits Verstappen’s new Red Bull colleague Liam Lawson, who is struggling to come to terms with his role – by his own admission. It’s a long way back from P20 as the New Zealander may discover today. Let’s see how things pan out.
The race starts at 7am (GMT). Let’s go.
