Chinese Grand Prix 2025 Race Analysis

Oscar Piastri wins his third grand prix! Norris comes in P2, and Russell comes in P3!! 

The Chinese Grand Prix was as chaotic as it could be! Within the first lap, Norris gained a position on Russell, the two switching places from P3 and P2 respectively. An early collision between Hamilton and Leclerc left the latter with a broken front wing. Despite this, the driver continued on, and did not pit for a new front wing.

Fernando Alonso did not finish the race due to his brakes being on fire. Pierre Gasly was kind enough to bring that to the notice of the audience, and maybe the Aston Martin pit wall as well.

Lewis Hamilton, the sprint winner, attempted a two stop stint for the race, in an attempt to overtake Verstappen. Unfortunately for the driver, the stint did not work in his favour, as he had to cover a gap of fifteen seconds from the front runners. The driver also swapped positions with his teammate during the race. He claimed that he felt he wasn’t fast enough, and decided to let his teammate pass him for the betterment of the team.

Oliver Bearman was a surprise in this race, as he made up nine positions. In true Ollie-style, he said “Ciao!” to the drivers he overtook. This was great improvement seen from Haas, especially with Ocon’s race engineer, Laura Mueller being the first female race engineer scoring points in an F1 race.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll also took an interesting strategy for the race. He did a long stint on hard tyres, attempting to do a one-stop. The strategy seemed to work for the team, especially since the driver ended in points (from disqualifications, but it counts).

One of my favourite parts of the Grand Prix was Alex Albon being the first Williams driver in the past ten years to lead a race, even if it was for a few moments. Seeing that it was the driver’s birthday as well on race day, it was certainly a gift to score important points in the grand prix. 

Jack Doohan has four penalty points on his license, and it has only been two races! Due to a lock up, he forced Isack Hadjar off track. Race control, taking note of this, gave a ten second penalty to the driver along with two penalty points. 

Leclerc was also not the only one with a broken wing. Yuki Tsunoda also had a broken front wing, for which the team immediately pitted him, and changed the nose of the car. The pit stop took extra time, and Tsunoda ended the race last. 

McLaren driver, Lando Norris, was faced with brake issues during the last few laps. Brake issues are highly critical, and the driver was forced to drive much slower. Though, this brake issue did not stop Norris from setting the fastest lap in lap 53. The driver finished P2 with a gap from Russell of one second. Previously, the gap had been extended upto about five to seven seconds. If there had been one more lap, Russell could have overtaken the McLaren driver, and reclaimed his P2 position. Later in the interviews, Norris claimed that his race engineer, Will Joseph, and the team were aware about the brake issue way before they told him. The team principal, Andrea Stella, said in a recent interview that the brake issue had been going on for the last twenty laps of the race. Lando Norris, to not only continue driving with that, but also set fastest laps, is truly commendable. The CEO of McLaren, Zak Brown, also joked that the brake issue saved the team from issuing team orders, seeing that Norris was asked to create a gap between Russell and the two McLarens, instead of fighting for a win. Interesting.

Oscar Piastri also kept his cool during the entire race, and barely made any mistakes. For his first pole, and to be able to convert it into a win is amazing.

The race was not over after the chequered flag. Three drivers were disqualified. Leclerc and Gasly were disqualified on technical infringements. Leclerc’s car was found to be one kilogram lighter. Gasly’s car was similar. Hamilton was disqualified on the basis of his plank assembly not meeting the required regulations. These disqualifications put both Williams into points, and increased the points of the Haas.

Race two complete, twenty-two to go!