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Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli had a perfect race from pole position and was in control from start to finish to secure his first victory in Formula One. The 19 year-old was followed by George Russell who battled off the Ferraris of which Hamilton emerged on top to complete the podium.
As in Melbourne there was again drama before the actual start of the race with Bortoleto retiring after being pulled into the pit boxes as the team found an issue on his car while getting it ready for the race start. Williams’ Albon hadn’t even come that far and effectively retired before making it out on track. At McLaren there were similar problems with both cars relinquishing their grid slots and having to start from the grid, instead of from 5th and 6th.
When the lights went out and the real action started both Ferraris again enjoyed a great start. Hamilton immediately took first place while Antonelli had to be intelligent to stay ahead of a challenging Leclerc through the first corners. Russell took fourth without much ado.
As Verstappen had a terrible start, Colapinto had a great one and ended up 6th, right behind his teammate. Fernando Alonso also once again had a cannot start and was 9th before dropping down again as of lap 2. With Verstappen 10th, Hadjar made things worse for Red Bull as he spun off and had to rejoin at the back.
When everybody got going properly it was clear that the McLarens hadn’t been able to get away, meaning a double retirement for Norris and Piastri.
On lap 2, at the end of the main straight, Antonelli restored his starting position by overtaking Hamilton. Russell would soon follow to pass Leclerc and then Hamilton. The Ferrari duo gradually lost time to the Mercedes duo after that, up to about half a second a lap.
As early as lap 7 Verstappen reported his soft tyres were dead. He was unable to make a move on Lawson or Hadjar ahead while Bearman behind looking challenging. Lawson and Verstappen were pitted at the end of lap 9, unluckily moments before the safety car was brought out following Stroll’s stoppage in Turn 1.
The SC period obviously triggered numerous pitstops. Antonelli maintained first place while Colapinto did not stop and ended up in second place on the hard tyres he was on since the start. Ocon in the Haas did the same and emerged in third, followed by Russell, Hamilton, Lindblad, Leclerc, Hulkenberg, Gasly, Bearman. Then Alonso in 11th with Lawson, Verstappen, Sainz, Bottas, Perez and Hadjar behind.
Lap 14 marked the continuation of racing as the AMR was cleared and the Safety Car left the track. The top three positions didn’t change at the restart but Hamilton immediately put the pressure on Russell and after a defensive move by the Mercedes driver could cut back and take the position. Before the end of that lap Hamilton went on to overtake Ocon. Colapinto was overtaken the next lap, quickly moving closer to Antonelli as well.
George Russell meeanwhile complained of zero grip and lost a position to Leclerc while also losing time behind the much slower Ocon, who Hamilton had so quickly cleared.
Two laps later things had improved for the Mercedes duo. with tyres warmed up, Antonelli set fastest lap and could fairly easily keep Hamilton behind. Russell made it past Ocon and Colapinto, making for 4th position, a second down on Leclerc who then ran 2.5 seconds behind Hamilton.
For 5th a big battle then emerged with Colapinto doing an excellent job keeping the Haas duo behind for numerous laps. Every time they tried to pass him at the end of the back straight the Alpine driver made sure he maintained the outside on the exist of the hairpin, giving him the inside line for the final corner to re-take the advantage. The situation was of course untenable and he eventually had to allow Bearman to take 5th with Verstappen also emerging in the pack to take 6th. Colapinto went on in 7th but seemed comfortable enough to keep Ocon and Gasly behind after that.
By lap 23 the top 4 had remained unchanged even though Hamilton lost some ground on Antonelli while Leclerc and Russell were pushing each right into Hamilton’s slipstream. Leclerc made it past his teammate on the straight in lap 24. Hamilton tried to take the place back through Turn 1 but then fell at risk of losing out to Russell, effectively leaving positions unchanged in that lap.
The Ferraris were seen side by side frequently in the following few laps by on lap 27 Russell had seen enough and decided the join the party, first passing Hamilton on the back straight of lap 27 while putting pressure on Leclerc in the next laps. Russell got past Leclerc at the end of lap 29 and reported “Yeah, the Ferraris are very fast in exactly the right places”.
Leclerc didn’t manage to stage an attempt to take the position back so Russell found himself in second with two red cars in his mirrors and 8 seconds behind race leader Antonelli. The latter had been driving on his own pretty much the whole time, ideal of tyre and car management.
On lap 33 Colapinto and Ocon came together after each served a pitstop. Ocon was extremely courageous to try to immediately take the position in Turn 2 but after the both spun following wheel banging, the Frenchman quickly admitted that was on him. He was later also given a 10 second penalty.
Up on front, Russell took two tenths a lap out of Antonelli’s advantage while Hamilton took third place back from Leclerc following some energy management discussions with his engineer. Bearman followed the Ferrari’s in 5th, 19 seconds behind. Verstapppen continued to trail the Haas by about two seconds with Gasly closing in on him from behind. Lawson, Hadjar and Sainz completed the point scoring positions.
Alonso meanwhile got lapped by Antonelli and subsequently returned to the pits to retire the car. That’s the end of the race for Aston Martin, but at least they managed a reasonable amount of laps.
On lap 46, 10 from the end, Verstappen was asked to retire his car after accelerating slowly out of Turn 4. The Dutchman slowly returned to the pits to end his Chinese Grand Prix weekend as well.
The end of the race was one of tyre management with everybody wanting to pit, but nobody willing to give up a position. Leclerc and Antonelli had lockup moments at the end of the back straight while Russell noted “my rear tyres are done”. Still, they managed, crossing the finish line as they were, securing Antonelli’s first victory in Formula One.
F1: RaceGP China
