Chinese Grand Prix, F1: Oscar Piastri wins; Norris gives McLaren 1-2 finish in Shanghai

This is Piastri’s third career F1 win. He previously claimed wins at the Hungarian Grand Prix and Azerbaijan Grand Prix both in the 2024 season.

“Mega job guys. The car was very, very lovely,” Piastri said over the team radio after taking the chequered flag — an echo of Verstappen’s ‘simply lovely’ catchphrase heard so often in the past.

“I’m just so proud of the whole weekend. This is what I feel like I deserved from last week,” added the Australian, who finished ninth in Melbourne after starting on the front row.

Norris finished 9.748 seconds behind on a similar one-stop strategy and after struggling with a ‘long’ brake pedal that became critical towards the end and forced him to slow.

The Briton now has 44 points to Verstappen’s 36 and Russell’s 35. Piastri, who was second in the sprint, is on 34.

McLaren are 25 points clear of Mercedes.

“It’s like my worst nightmare,” said Norris of his brake issue. “If I have a nightmare it’s when the brakes are failing and I was losing two, three, four seconds the last couple of laps. So I was a bit scared but we survived and got to the end,”

(With inputs from Reuters)