F1 Chinese GP: Kimi Antonelli takes maiden win as Lewis Hamilton scores first Ferrari podium

Kimi Antonelli converted pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix into his first Formula 1 victory to beat team-mate George Russell, as Lewis Hamilton secured his first Ferrari podium.

Antonelli had to contend with a typically fast start from the two Ferraris but, helpfully, did not get bogged down himself; this ensured that, although the Italian lost the lead into Turn 1 to Hamilton, he was able to stay ahead of Charles Leclerc.

The Bologna-born teen continued to build a gap through the race that eventually proved unassailable, and survived one shaky moment towards the end as he sustained a lock-up at Turn 14 with three laps remaining.

In preserving second at the start, it meant that Antonelli was able to pull ahead of Hamilton on the following lap, sinking his overtake mode into a move at Turn 14 to reclaim the lead.

From here, Antonelli appeared to be relatively comfortable; a battle flared between the two Ferraris and Russell in the early stages, leaving the Italian free to build a gap.

Although it appeared that this would be interrupted by a 10th-lap safety car, produced by Lance Stroll's stoppage as the Aston Martin suffered a suspected battery issue, Antonelli's cause was helped by movements in the pitlane.

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing (Photo by: Sona Maleterova / Getty Images)

After stopping for hard tyres, Antonelli was also joined in the pitlane by the other medium-tyre runners within the top 10; this shuffled the hard-shod Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon ahead of the Ferraris and Russell for the restart.

This kept Antonelli free of an attack into Turn 1, although Hamilton's quick fire-up of the hard tyre ensured that the Briton quickly rifled through the un-stopped cars ahead and got within half a second of his Mercedes successor.

Yet, Antonelli managed to find some pace after a couple of laps and started to extend his lead - one that had begun to swell as the Ferraris and Russell battled over second in a pass and re-pass battle. As Hamilton and Leclerc duelled, Russell picked them off one at a time shortly after Leclerc had made a successful play for second.

Russell attempted to chase after his teenage team-mate, but Antonelli's gap at this stage was well over seven seconds - and this even rose to beyond nine seconds - before "giving myself a heart-attack" with a lock-up at Turn 14.

With a message from engineer Pete Bonnington to "bring it home", Antonelli crossed the line with a 5.5-second winning margin over his team-mate.

Hamilton won out in a box-office battle between the Ferraris, with wheel-to-wheel racing throughout. This was effectively concluded on the 40th lap, when Hamilton fired his car up the inside at Turn 1 and held the line into Turn 3.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari (Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images)

Leclerc thus finished fourth, 28s up the road from Haas' Ollie Bearman. Embroiled in an early battle with his team-mate Esteban Ocon and the two Alpines, Bearman tapped into a rich vein of pace from his car once he'd been able to clear Colapinto.

Gasly added to Alpine's tally with sixth, picking up a place when Max Verstappen retired with a power unit issue, which moved Liam Lawson up to seventh after the New Zealander also batted away an assault from Isack Hadjar.

Hadjar had locked up his wheels at Turn 13 while battling against Bearman and had to stop at the end of the first lap, but recovered to collect his first points at Red Bull.

Carlos Sainz picked up Williams' first points of the year with ninth, keeping Colapinto at arm's length as the Argentine picked up his first point for Alpine.

Colapinto pitted later into the race and came out ahead of the similarly late-stopping Ocon; the two made contact as Colapinto took a wider approach into Turn 3, and Ocon attempted to dive down the inside as the Alpine turned in. Ocon immediately accepted the blame for the incident, and also picked up a 10-second penalty for causing a collision.

Nico Hulkenberg and Arvid Lindblad factored in the battle for points but just missed out on the top 10, as Valtteri Bottas was classified ahead of Ocon and Sergio Perez to record Cadillac's highest finish so far.

Both Aston Martins retired from the grand prix, as Fernando Alonso called it a day after losing feeling in his hands due to the uncontrollable vibrations in his AMR26. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris failed to start with unrelated powertrain issues, with Alex Albon and Gabriel Bortoleto also unable to take their positions on the grid.

F1 Chinese Grand Prix race results 

RACE

All Stats

 

Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Chassis	Engine
1	A. Antonelli Mercedes	12		56	-			1	25		Mercedes	Mercedes
2	G. Russell Mercedes	63		56	+5.515 5.515	5.515		1	18		Mercedes	Mercedes
3	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44		56	+25.267 25.267	19.752		1	15		Ferrari	Ferrari
4	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		56	+28.894 28.894	3.627		1	12		Ferrari	Ferrari
5	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87		56	+57.268 57.268	28.374		1	10		Haas	Ferrari
6	P. Gasly Alpine	10		56	+59.647 59.647	2.379		1	8		Alpine	Mercedes
7	L. Lawson Racing Bulls	30		56	+1'20.588 1'20.588	20.941		1	6		RB	Red Bull
8	I. Hadjar Red Bull Racing	6		56	+1'27.247 1'27.247	6.659		2	4		Red Bull	Red Bull
9	C. Sainz Williams	55		55	1 lap			1	2		Williams	Mercedes
10	F. Colapinto Alpine	43		55	1 lap			1	1		Alpine	Mercedes
11	N. Hulkenberg Audi	27		55	1 lap			1			Audi	Audi
12	A. Lindblad Racing Bulls	41		55	1 lap			1			RB	Red Bull
13	V. Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari	77		55	1 lap			1			Cadillac	Ferrari
14	E. Ocon Haas F1 Team	31		55	1 lap			2			Haas	Ferrari
15	S. Perez Cadillac-Ferrari	11		55	1 lap			1			Cadillac	Ferrari
dnf	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	3		45	11 laps			2		Retirement	Red Bull	Red Bull
dnf	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		32	24 laps			2		Retirement	Aston Martin	Honda
dnf	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		9	47 laps					Retirement	Aston Martin	Honda
dns	O. Piastri McLaren	81		0							McLaren	Mercedes
dns	L. Norris McLaren	1		0							McLaren	Mercedes
dns	G. Bortoleto Audi	5		0							Audi	Audi
dns	A. Albon Williams	23		0							Williams	Mercedes
View full results

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