Kimi Antonelli has taken his maiden grand Prix win after dominating the Chinese Grand Prix, where he finished five and a half seconds ahead of his Mercedes teammate George Russell. Antonelli becomes the first Italian Grand Prix winner in two decades after a beautifully controlled race, after both Mercedes drivers lost out to Lewis Hamilton at the start.
Antonelli briefly lost the lead to Hamilton in the open corners, but fended off the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, and then proved untouchable baring a minor lock-up at Turn Fourteen with three laps to go. Despite losing out to Hamilton, aided by Overtake Mode on the following lap, Antonelli retook the lead at Turn Fourteen.
But the pace of the Ferrari was not enough to hold the lead despite a close fight with Russell before he dropped off during the second stint, where the Ferrari’s threw everything at Russell. Once they had dropped back, Hamilton became embroiled in a closely fought battle with teammate Leclerc.
Russell’s chance of victory unravelled during the safety car; both Mercedes and Ferrari stopped, but the Englishman lost track position to Antonelli. Then on the restart, his tyres were cold and suffered snaps through the opening corner, the Ferraris pounced and gained position.
Throughout their battle for third, the two Ferraris were close as they nearly came to blows several times, but eventually Hamilton pulled slightly ahead to finish just over three and a half seconds ahead of Leclerc to take his first Grand Prix podium for Ferrari. Sealing his podium on lap forty through the snaking first three corners.
Both Ferraris had another go to try and pass Russell after a safety car to recover Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, which stopped on lap thirty-two, but on cold new hard tyres, they were unable to take advantage of a poor restart by the Mercedes.
Hamilton tried to catch Antonelli but was unable to put enough pressure on the teenager, who slowly pulled away. It appears that in the sprint, the seven-time champion had taken too much out of his tyres, which created a close fight for third with Leclerc.
With the pair trading places several times down to Turn One and later around the lap at Turn Fourteen, both drivers strategically using their electrical deployment for extra power in different ways. The deciding moment came at Fourteen when going side-by-side, Leclerc ran wide, giving Hamilton third.
Antonelli, who wins his first Grand Prix, “I’m speechless, I’m about to cry to be honest. Thank you so much to my team because they have helped me to achieve this dream.”
Adding “I’m super happy. I said yesterday that I really wanted to bring Italy back on top and we did today. Even though I gave myself a little bit of a heart attack towards the end with a flat spot, but it was a good race.”
Russell, who finished second in Shanghai: “Firstly, huge congratulations to Kimi, because it is always very special to win your first race and obviously he has been driving amazingly this year and this weekend, especially. Pleased to be standing on the podium with him and also with this guy [Lewis Hamilton] as well.”
Hamilton said, “I had so much fun. We had a great start. I wasn’t able to keep these guys behind, but to stay in the fight, it was one of the most enjoyable races that I’ve had in a long, long time, if ever. The fact that the cars are the way they are this year… that battle with Charles at the end was awesome. Great wheel-to-wheel battle, very fair, and just what we want. We’ve got to keep pushing.”
Ollie Bearman finished fifth, another strong result for Haas as the Englishman finished twenty-eight seconds behind the Ferrari’s, having fended off Pierre Gasly and teammate Esteban Ocon, early on. The Englishman had avoided a collision on the opening lap with Isack Hadjar, a narrow escape as the Frenchman spun in front of him.
Gasly finished the race twenty seconds ahead of Liam Lawson, with the spin on the opening lap putting Hadjar back to eighth. Hadjar had dropped to the back after a lock up from his fight with Bearman on the opening lap forcing him into an early stop, he then recovered to eighth.
The Frenchman was the final car on the lead lap, as he finished six and a half seconds behind Lawson. His teammate Max Verstappen retired with eleven laps to go because of an issue
Carlos Sainz finished ninth, seven tenths ahead of Franco Colapinto to complete the top ten, but both were a lap down. The Argentine had stopped later in the race along with Ocon, as they rejoined, they made contact and battled for position at turn three. Ocon took responsibility for the incident and was awarded a ten second time penalty.
Nico Hulkenberg missed out on points as he finished nearly nine seconds behind the Alpine, following a spin. Arvid Lindblad was a second behind the Audi. Cadillac completed the runners, Valtteri Bottas ten seconds ahead of Ocon when the penalty applied, Sergio Perez completed the runners.
Verstappen retired with an electrical issue with ten laps to go. The world champions McLaren had a disastrous Sunday; it was over before the race began, with both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri failed to start due to power unit-related issues, which are believed to be unrelated.
Piastri is yet to start a Grand Prix this season, a week ago, he crashed on the formation lap in Melbourne, but he didn’t even get that far he was wheeled off the grid before the race started. Norris, stopped on the formation lap.
Team principal Andrea Stella told Sky Sports, “We came here to go racing and today we were not in condition to do so because of technical problems. This is very frustrating and disappointing for the team, for the drivers, for our technical and commercial partners, and for our fans
Also not making the start was Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto with a hydraulics issue, while Alex Albon was due to start from the pit lane after a suspension change on his Williams but he failed to get going.
Related
- Chinese GP – Qualifying Result
- CHINESE GP – Kimi Antonelli beats George Russell by two tenths to take maiden pole, ahead of both Ferrari’s
- Chinese GP – Sprint Result
- Chinese GP – Sprint Qualifying Result
- CHINESE GP – George Russell beats Kimi Antonelli to sprint pole by two tenths, with Mercedes retaining clear advantage
- CHINESE GP – George Russell a tenth faster than Kimi Antonelli in practice, with Mercedes having an advantage of half a second
- Welcome to the Chinese Grand Prix – 12/03/2026
- PRIXVIEW – Chinese Grand Prix
