Oscar Piastri won his third ever race, securing the Chinese Grand Prix, and did it in style, making up for a disappointing first race of the season last weekend. Talking of rising pastry, our 2025 Chinese F1 Grand Prix Result Summary is here and smells good and tastes even better.
This 2025 Chinese Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings which gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
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2025 Chinese F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – Joy for Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari as he takes out the Sprint race on the Saturday in quite the turnaround from the average season opener in Australia. Oscar Piastri was a distant second, but looks to have the measure of his Championship leading team mate this weekend and he confirmed this by taking pole for the race proper, his first. George Russell pulled a lap out of somewhere to split the McLarens. Max Verstappen seem resigned to his fourth place, and someone who may resign sooner than later is Liam Lawson who qualified dead last.
The lesson from the Sprint Race was about tyres, with all drivers struggling. The driver in front having a massive advantage to the rest. Advantage Piastri then. Or maybe not depending on the start, and team rules. So much waiting to be unpacked.
GRID (Starting Order) – PIA RUS NOR VER HAM LEC HAD ANT TSU ALB
Liam Lawson starts from pitlane.
Lap 1 – Oscar Piastri sort-of fluffs his first pole position but manages to get enough speed and squeeze George Russell going into turn one and hold onto P1. This squeezing then helps his team mate Lando Norris to go around the outside of George Russell to steal second and make it a McLaren 1-2. The Ferraris both overtake Max Verstappen who then dobs in Charles Leclerc for having a broken front wing, probably to have the stewards make him change. Smart really, if a little bit….tactical. Replays show it was Lewis Hamilton that caused the damage as the cars turned into turn two. Isack Hadjar made it through for first ever F1 lap but dropped from 7th to 9th. In case he doesn’t do anything better, Liam Lawson is up to 18th from the pit lane.
ORDER – PIA NOR RUS HAM LEC VER ANT TSU HAD OCO
Lap 3 – Aside from Gabriel Bortoleto at the tail of the field, nearly every gap between drivers is just over a second. With the tyre situation, these cars may not even try to overtake this early. This could be a dull one. Replays show Bortoleto running off the road to explain the deficit.
Lap 4 – Fernando Alonso is slowing, and looks like he will be the first retirement of the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix.
Lap 6 – Oscar Piastri has a lead over Lando Norris of just under one second, a dangerous amount for team strategy. Norris is the faster of the two McLaren right now. Of course as soon as i type that, the speed and gap go back to slightly benefit Oscar Piastri. The biggest gap between drivers further is Max Verstappen to the Ferraris of over three seconds. The Ferraris are squabbling over fourth without being too impolite.
Lap 8 – In the race for the first Southern Hemisphere driver sacked in 2025, Liam Lawson remains 18th just behind Jack Doohan in 17th. At least the Kick Sauber drivers have an excuse in 19th / 20th.
Lap 10 – Given some people believe rightly or wrongly that Covid started in China, would it then be impolite so say it is coincidental that the entire grid is social distancing. Could be worse.
Lap 11 – Alpine break up the boredom by pitting Pierre Gasly. He rejoins second last which is either an indication of the closeness of the field or a slight on how far back Bortoleto is. In the pitlane, Ferrari are doing a Michael Jackson and trying to decide which nose to fit to Leclerc’s car. Tsunoda, Ocon and Doohan all pit next lap.
ORDER – PIA NOR RUS HAM LEC VER ANT HAD ALB STR
Lap 13 – Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar pit, and Antonelli rejoins just as Yuki Tsunoda tspeeds past. That’s a place gained for the Racing Bulls car.
Lap 14 – Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen pit. Hamilton rejoins in 10th and Verstappen in 12th.
Lap 15 – Oscar Piastri pits from the lead and the pit stop is slower than usual. He rejoins in fourth and luckily in front of Lance Stroll. Lando Norris takes the lead, and he could take it for good with an extended stint in front and a quicker pit stop. crucial laps now for the race win.
Lap 16 – Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc pit, Alex Albon takes the lead on his birthday. Norris comes out of the pits behind Lance Stroll and George Russell. Both drivers make light work of the Aston Martin as he is lightly talented. Great news for Oscar Piastri as his biggest rival Norris has a reasonably quick Mercedes in between him and Norris.
ORDER – PIA ALB RUS NOR STR HAM LEC BEA VER SAI
Lap 18 – Lando Norris nails George Russell into turn one to take a net second, as Alex Albon’s birthday party continues in second place. He is yet to stop. Norris is around three seconds behind Oscar Piastri. Albon pits on Lap 20, but not before the McLaren dives past into hairpin on lap 19.
Lap 21 – With most of the pit stops done and dusted for the first wave (Not Stroll or Bearman), it’s time to do a quick order check. Piastri is slowly pushing away from Lando Norris. The gap is out to four seconds and beyond.
ORDER – PIA NOR RUS LEC HAM VER STR BEA TSU OCO
Lap 24 – Nothing much happening, so we are forced to watch 7th v 8th – Stroll v Bearman. It’s not a bad scrap, with the drivers very close to each other, and they swap positions and back into the back straight hairpin. And there’s more Ferrari communication from Lewis Hamilton. Would rather listen to some angry Hadjar radio. Or Yuki Tsunoda who could point out to Red Bull bosses that he’s 9th and Liam L’awful is only faster than Kick Sauber.
Lap 27 – One stoppers Oliver Berman and one of the Kick Saubers make their only pitstop. We presume.
Lap 28 – Lando Norris sets the fastest lap, that might make the McLaren battle more interesting. Piastri in only 3.3 seconds in front.
Lap 30 – Rookie Gabriel Bortoleto sets fastest lap. Not a bad effort in a Kick Sauber.
Lap 31 – Good period for the rookies as Oliver Bearman overtakes Liam L’awful – for 16th – who then decides to pit. Bearman takes 15th from Jack Doohan a few laps later.
Lap 34 – Lando Norris edges closer to Oscar Piastri by a tenth here and there, but Piastri still has things under control. Similar gaps of 2-3 second throughout the top ten too. A window for a second tyre stop opens and Isack Hadjar takes full advantage and drops to 16th, which is still ahead of Liam Lawson.
ORDER – PIA NOR RUS LEC HAM VER STR OCO ANT ALB
Lap 38 – Lewis Hamilton pits for tyres, which is interesting as the vibe is that teams will stay out on their current tyres. Hamilton drops just one place thanks to this pit stop and that leaves Max Verstappen as the car ahead of him. Could be an ol’ time clash ahead between those two. Team radio a few laps agon announced that there might be a little rain coming…..and we thought it was just smog not rain clouds.
Lap 40 – Oliver Bearman takes 10th place and the final point off Pierre Gasly.
Lap 41 – Hamilton is catching Max Verstappen at one second a lap after his pit stop. He still 18 seconds behind.
Lap 42 – Papaya update and Piastri is just under four seconds in front of Lando Norris now, and looking as comfortable as he needs, and Australian fans want. The rest of the top five are 3-4 seconds behind the car in front.
ORDER – PIA NOR RUS LEC VER HAM OCO ANT ALB BEA
Lap 46 – Team radio states that there could be a class one rain event on the last lap. Seem accurate and vague at the same time. Quality.
Lap 50 – The gap between the McLarens is maintaining at just over three seconds.
Lap 51 – Jack Doohan receives a 10 second penalty for clashing with Yuki Tsunoda. And under investigation for moving under braking.
Lap 52 – Decent battle actually brewing in the front half of the grid – Charles Leclerc vs Max Verstappen. The Red Bull taking advantage of the Ferrari’s ill handling tyres.
Lap 53 – Max Verstappen eventually passes Charles Leclerc for fourth after they swap places a few times. An exciting little burst of action, which is needed. If this race was at the standard 11pm for the Australin time zones, we doubt whether we would have seen half of it.
Lap 55 – Lando Norris drops off the back of Oscar Piastri rapidly as he encounters brake trouble. George Russell has halved the gap to Norris over a lap or so.
FINAL LAP – Lando Norris struggles with brakes to try and stay ahead of George Russell. No such struggles for Oscar Piastri who cruises through the final lap to take his third win, and by far his easiest. A win of dominance that may have Lando Norris taking notice. Speaking of Norris, he holds on just for second. And you can hear the disappointment in the Sky F1 crew as Norris doesn’t win.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – PIA NOR RUS VER LEC HAM OCO ANT ALB BEA
FINAL ORDER (Ferrari / Gasly DQ) – PIA NOR RUS VER OCO ANT ALB BEA STR SAI
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – OSCAR PIASTRI
A dominant win from his first ever pole position. Almost makes up for the home race disappointment.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LEWIS HAMILTON – Whilst not the strongest Sunday from the new Ferrari driver, he’ll surely take the Sprint race win, which seemed a big deal to him. In general and after a less than glowing Australian Grand Prix opener.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Split the McLaren in qualifying and best of the rest in the race.
ESTEBAN OCON – Solid qualifying (11th) followed by a very good 7th place in the race. A great return for a Haas car that looked awfully slow in Australia.
OLIVER BEARMAN – Made up for an Australian Grand Prix shocker with a very Chinese Grand Prix.
KIMI ANTONELLI – Perhaps not as spectacular as his first race, but his second consecutive points finish and reasonably trouble-free weekend speaks volumes for the potential.
THE GRAPE-EST – LIAM LAWSON
Probably thought it couldn’t get worse than Australia and tried his very best to better or at least match it. Qualified last, started from pitlane and made very little progress.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
FERNANDO ALONSO – Only DNF of the race due to an engine failure.
JACK DOOHAN – Not too bad a race in context of being his third race, but a penalty doesn’t help, especially if he needs to shine soon to avoid the sack.
KICK SAUBER – Reality check in China after Australian Grand Prix glory.
RACING BULLS – Decent qualifying thrown away with a poor race and strategy.
FERRARI – Lost 5th and 6th place finishes with a technical disqualification.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
PRE RACE ACTION (FP, QUAL, SPRINT etc) – 2 / 5
Lewis Hamilton winning the sprint race was a good story for the weekend. Oscar Piastri’s first pole is also good news. The tyre degradation in the Sprint race is not. It’ll mean the drivers will be too scared to race. Oh, and Liam Law
ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 2 / 10
When you are happy to see pit stops because there’s something to look at, then it’s been a dull race. Lucky it was a daytime race. Of sorts. For some.
ANY SURPRISES? – 2 / 5
Nothing really. Until after the race where there were three disqualifications.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 3 / 5
The Piastri v Norris performances is key to the Drivers Championships. So every race is a chance to get a better result than the team mate.
ENDING – 2 / 5
A battle for 15th between Jack Doohan and the Racing Bulls and close ups of Yuki Tsunoda’s broken front wing sum up the excitement level of the last number of laps. But then the Max Verstappen v Charles Leclerc battle heated up, and Lando Norris’ brakes problem ensured a tiny bit more tension.
OVERALL RATING – 11 / 30
Not a classic, nor probably a race you would watch again for anything other than assistance to get to sleep.
2025 F1 Season Race Ratings
R1 – Australian Grand Prix – 27/30
2025 F1 Season Preview Gear
F1 2025 SEASON – THINGS TO LOOK FOR AND AVOID
F1 DONKEY AUSTRALIAN GP BOLD PREDICTIONS
2024 F1 Season Review Gear
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
2024 F1 SEASON FULL RACE REPORT HISTORY
