George Russell overcame Ferrari’s challenge to take a thrilling sprint race victory at the Chinese Grand Prix.
In the early stages it was all about Russell and Lewis Hamilton as they exchanged the lead six times inside the opening five laps in Shanghai, with the former eventually prevailing to continue his flawless start to the new season.
Hamilton had to settle for third as Russell – a winner in Australia six days ago – took the chequered flag 0.6 seconds clear of Charles Leclerlc.
Lando Norris finished fourth, one place clear of Russell’s Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli. Max Verstappen started eighth and was ninth at the end following a poor start which left him way down in 16th.
Russell now leads Antonelli by 11 points in the championship standings.
In the end, it was relatively straightforward for Russell, but that had not been the case from the start. Hamilton, who started fourth, arrived at the first corner ahead of Antonelli, who failed to get going in his Mercedes and dropped six places to eighth.
Hamilton swatted aside Norris at the long opening right-hander before setting his sights on Russell, and midway through lap one he had cleared the Mercedes man. Russell was able to assume the lead at the penultimate corner only for Hamilton to latch on to Russell’s tow on the main straight and move round the outside of the Silver Arrows at the first corner with the new regulations, and the reliance on battery charge, again taking centre stage.
At the end of the next lap, Russell was back ahead, diving underneath Hamilton at Turn 15 but his lead did not last for long with Hamilton clearing his compatriot at the beginning of the next lap.
On to lap six, and Russell tried his luck at the first corner but Hamilton held firm. However, Russell launched his Mercedes underneath Hamilton’s Ferrari at the last but one bend, and from there, Hamilton’s challenge was over. With Russell extending his advantage, Hamilton had Leclerc for company.
“I think Lewis is struggling,” said Leclerc before making the move for second on lap eight. Hamilton tried his luck through the opening bends of the next lap, and the two Ferrari men went wheel-to-wheel, but Leclerc remained ahead before taking aim at his team-mate on the radio: “Does he know how wide these cars are or not?”
On lap 11, Hamilton had slipped back to fourth with Antonelli fighting his way back through the field following his slow start.
Then, Nico Hülkenberg broke down, and the safety car was deployed. With five laps to go, the leaders came in for fresh tyres.
Antonelli served a 10-second penalty for an earlier collision with Isack Hadjar, dropping him from third to eighth, while Norris cleared Hamilton – the Ferrari man delayed by having to wait for team-mate Leclerc to be serviced.
So when the safety car came in at the end of lap 16, Russell led from Leclerc, Norris and Hamilton. Hamilton took third off Norris on the last but one lap, but it was Russell’s morning in Shanghai.
“Lewis did an amazing job, and he caught me off-guard, but he was using his experience,” said Russell.
Hamilton said: “It was a close battle and their speed on the straights was a little bit too much. I put up a good fight, but I killed my tyres. It is a much better car, and I have been a part of developing that. But I was in the lead at one point, so to finish third was not the greatest, but I tried and will do my best again later.”
