Piastri wins for Norris in China, Verstappen just next to stage

Oscar Piastri has won a Grand Prix for the third time in Formula 1. The 23-year-old Australian of McLaren left in China from Poleposition and kept the full 56 laps in the lead. His teammate Lando Norris came in second. George Russell finished third.

Four -time world champion Max Verstappen finished fourth and was short on the Shanghai speed circuit in the opening rounds to participate in the podium places.

Norris retains the management in the World Cup stand (44 points) for Verstappen (36), Russell (35) and Piastri (34).

The Dutchman started on Sunday from four, but dropped immediately to sixth place due to a bad start. The entire race could only watch how McLaren and Mercedes competed for the victory. Although he performed a great catch -up campaign at Charles Leclerc in the last laps, ending in fourth.

While Verstappen crushed the start, Piastri, second in the Sprintrace on Saturday, retained the lead for McLaren. Russell tried to catch up with the Australian from the starting place, but a moment later he saw the McLaren of Norris passing by.

In his Mercedes, Russell tried to get the entire race the smooth McLarens, he also performed the pressure considerably by going into the pits only once, but the plan did not succeed. In the front, the question was whether Norris was able to overtake his teammate Piastri to strengthen his leadership in the World Cup position, but it didn’t come that far either. McLaren kept control of the entire race.

Big incidents were not forthcoming during the race in Shanghai. Or it must have been the smoking brake of Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard had a bad day: after four laps Alonso drove his Aston Martin into the pits because his right rear brake was on fire.

In the final phase, Norris also had problems with his brake pedal, which contained more exercise than usual, which meant that he had to keep racing a little more.

Then the most beautiful action of the day of the race was yet to come. Verstappen had opened the yacht on Leclerc and sent his car three laps before the end by Leclerc with a great maneuver.

The Dutchman first tried to catch up with the Monegask in the first corner, a long turner. When Leclerc drove him to the outside, Verstappen crossed and he passed the Ferrari in the second corner. A few turns later Leclerc tried to counter, but that attempt was not successful.

The third GP of the season will take place in two weeks. Then the drivers send their cars in Japan over the Suzuka circuit.