Five winners, five losers: Chinese Grand Prix
- Peter Johnson
- Mar 26
- 7 min read
Updated: Apr 6
Written by Peter Johnson, Edited by Marit Everett
The second round of the season in China saw the return of sprint weekends and a significant post-race shake-up to the classification, but who came out on top - and who didn’t?
Winner - Haas
After a difficult season opener in Australia which suggested Haas could have slipped right back down the pecking order, this weekend demonstrated the team is very much in the midfield fight.
Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman were the final two classified finishers in Melbourne, but seven days later they led Haas to the team’s biggest points haul since the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix.
The pair finished a rather lowly 15th and 16th in Saturday’s sprint race, but both came home in the points for the main race on Sunday, even before they were shuffled up a couple of places due to Ferrari’s misdemeanours.
Bearman’s impressive first stint on hard tyres allowed him to go wild on the medium tyres towards the end of the race, with a signature “Ciao!” on the team radio after each swashbuckling overtake.
Ocon, meanwhile, was the class of the midfield, eventually taking home 10 points for a fifth-placed finish in front of Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Winner - Oscar Piastri
Of course the winner of Sunday’s Grand Prix will more often than not be one of the weekend’s “winners”, but Oscar Piastri’s performance in China felt as though it could carry particular significance.
It is now well established that McLaren, all things being equal, have the fastest car. Piastri demonstrated in China that he has more than enough speed in his back pocket to compete with teammate Lando Norris for race wins and potentially even the championship.
Yes, Norris had brake issues in the latter stages that meant he was arguably fortunate even to finish, but Piastri appeared the faster driver of the two all weekend long.
A lot of the work was done in the two qualifying sessions, with Norris botching his final lap in SQ3 on Friday and in Q3 on Saturday. Meanwhile, Piastri snatched the lap record at the Shanghai International Circuit, previously held for barely 24 hours by Lewis Hamilton, to become the 107th pole sitter in Formula One history.
In the sprint race, Piastri overtook World Champion Max Verstappen to finish second, while Norris battled just to finish in the points. On Sunday, Piastri showed a similar pace advantage throughout and regardless of his teammate’s brake issues was the deserved winner.
By picking up 32 points across the race weekend, Piastri also extended his 28-race scoring streak, the longest active streak on the grid.
The early signs are that this season’s championship battle will not be quite as simple as a Norris-Piastri showdown, but with more weekends like this the scales will tip further towards the McLaren duo and the Australian.
Winner - Lance Stroll
In an unprecedented turnaround from last season, when Fernando Alonso scored 74% of Aston Martin’s points, Lance Stroll has emerged as the team’s unlikely leader after two rounds.
The Canadian has scored all of his team’s points so far this season, making him the only driver other than Max Verstappen to do so.
Stroll followed up his sixth-placed finish in Melbourne with ninth place in both the sprint and the Grand Prix in China, taking home two further points for his efforts. Most impressive, however, was his superb opening stint on the hard tyres in the Grand Prix, which was so eye-catching that half of the field converted mid-race from a two-stop to a one-stop strategy.
Winner - George Russell
While there have been several noteworthy performances (both good and bad) up and down the grid already this season, few have been as quietly impressive as George Russell.
Russell claimed a comfortable third place in Melbourne’s season opener and he almost went one better in Shanghai this weekend.
It remains to be seen whether the Mercedes can be a regular race-winning car, but championships can be fought for and won through consistency as much as raw speed. In fairness, splitting the two McLarens in qualifying for the Grand Prix and claiming his fourth front-row start in six races, Russell does appear to possess both.
The Brit has adapted seamlessly to being Mercedes’ team leader and despite Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s strong showing so far, will be the team’s clear priority for the championship. If he continues in his current form, he could be a key competitor this season.
Winner - Isack Hadjar
After a desperately painful debut in Melbourne, Isack Hadjar bounced straight back in Shanghai to demonstrate exactly why he was given a berth in Formula One.
Hadjar’s one-lap pace was particularly impressive, posting faster laps than Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda in every qualifying session in which both set competitive times.
The young Frenchman was ultimately classified 11th in Sunday’s Grand Prix, just one position and two seconds away from a points-scoring result. While there is a lot of talk surrounding the relative performance of Tsunoda and Red Bull’s Liam Lawson, it must not be ignored that Hadjar out-performed both over the weekend.
Loser - Liam Lawson
A dismal showing at the start of 2025 has reportedly already left Liam Lawson on the verge of losing his Red Bull seat.
The driver from New Zealand was not the only rookie to endure a difficult first round in Australia, but while the likes of Oliver Bearman and Isack Hadjar had vastly improved weekends in China, Lawson seemed to stoop a level.
The Red Bull driver set the slowest lap time in both qualifying sessions in Shanghai and was only able to climb to 14th and 12th in the sprint and Grand Prix respectively.
He is now rumoured to be out of time already, with Yuki Tsunoda poised to take his seat at Red Bull. His start to the season could not have been much worse than this.
Loser - Ferrari
Somehow, despite Lewis Hamilton taking a stunning sprint pole and crushing sprint race win in Shanghai, the Scuderia left China on the back of what will ultimately be remembered as a disastrous weekend.
Hamilton was the class of the field on Saturday morning, but a series of set-up changes ahead of the main qualifying session saw the Ferrari drop like a stone compared to its rivals.
Come the race on Sunday, both Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc were fortunate not to have their races destroyed on the opening lap. An early collision between the two led only to a damaged front wing for Leclerc, which bizarrely appeared to aid his performance as it allowed the wing to flex more, adding to its aerodynamic ability.
The two red cars ultimately crossed the line in an underwhelming fifth and sixth, but worse was yet to come. Leclerc found himself under investigation for having an underweight car, while Hamilton’s was adjudged to have excessive plank wear.
Both were eventually disqualified from the race, meaning after two rounds Ferrari are suffering their worst start to a season in 16 years.
Loser - Racing Bulls
The first two rounds of 2025 have been a story of what “might have been” for Racing Bulls. Despite the fine work of Yuki Tsunoda in Australia and China and the flashes of pace from Isack Hadjar, the Red Bull junior team still has just three points to its name.
Just like in Melbourne, a strategy miscalculation proved to be the catalyst for the team’s self-inflicted downfall in Shanghai. Both Tsunoda and Hadjar were in strong contention for a strong points haul before the team opted to execute their pre-planned two-stop strategy.
Unfortunately for the team, the rest of the midfield reacted to Lance Stroll’s impressive stint on the hard tyre and converted to a one-stop strategy, which ultimately proved quicker. While Tsunoda and Hadjar benefited from a significant undercut following their opening pit stops, they were left high and dry in the latter stages.
It must also be noted that the self-implosion of Tsunoda’s front wing in the closing laps did not help matters.
It is perhaps telling that the only points Racing Bulls have picked up this season came in the one and only sprint race so far, in which tyre strategy is much less of a factor.
Loser - Jack Doohan
It was another untidy weekend for Jack Doohan, who at least managed to see the chequered flag in Shanghai, unlike in Melbourne.
There were few other positives, however, as Doohan struggled throughout the weekend. The Australian qualified 16th and finished dead last in the sprint after a ten-second penalty for a collision with Gabriel Bortoleto.
While his sprint qualifying was disappointing, Doohan’s main qualifying session was even worse, hampered by a spin that left him in 18th and with plenty of work to do in the Grand Prix.
However, rather than progressing forwards, Doohan spent much of the race trying to fend off a clearly faster Hadjar, and received another ten-second penalty for his overly-aggressive defence.
On top of the two time penalties, Doohan has already accumulated four penalty points for his troubles.
Loser - Fernando Alonso
Just two years ago, Fernando Alonso opened up his 2023 campaign with podium finishes in the opening pair of races. Fast-forward to 2025 and Alonso has opened his season’s account with two DNF’s to his name, making him the only driver yet to see the chequered flag in a Grand Prix.
With the arrival of Adrian Newey and the regulations overhaul for 2026, this season may be a season of transition for Aston Martin. However, with Alonso’s history of impatience at under-performing cars, he could yet be in for a long year.
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