Oscar Piastri led a McLaren one-two from Lando Norris within the Chinese language Grand Prix after an action-packed weekend the place Lewis Hamilton received the primary Saturday dash of the season after which had a shock disqualification Sunday, together with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
AFP Sport appears at three speaking factors from the second race weekend on the 24-leg 2025 System One calendar:
– Do not break the foundations –
Ferrari skilled the highs and lows of System One in Shanghai with Hamilton controlling the dash from pole for his first win in Scuderia crimson.
Simply over 24 hours later, the staff’s pleasure turned to despair because the seven-time world champion and his teammate Leclerc had been each disqualified for technical infringements.
Hamilton was deemed to have extreme plank put on beneath his automobile, whereas Leclerc’s automobile was under the 800 kilogram weight minimal.
Ferrari pleaded innocence and mentioned they’d “no intention to achieve any benefit”.
The Italian staff claimed Leclerc’s one-stop race technique had triggered excessive tyre put on, accounting for the load breach.
They added they’d misjudged Hamilton’s plank put on “by a small margin”.
The justifications reduce no ice with stewards who additionally disqualified Gasly for his automobile additionally being underweight.
The three vehicles being kicked out despatched a transparent warning to any groups or engineers aiming to push the boundaries of the rules: you break the foundations at your peril.
– Lawson may very well be out –
Hypothesis was rife on the weekend that the under-performing Liam Lawson could lose his Purple Bull seat after simply two races.
Japan’s Yuki Tsunoda may very well be promoted from junior staff RB in time for his house race weekend at Suzuka on April 4-6, specialist web site
Autosport reported after Sunday’s race.
The 23-year-old Lawson has been knocked out on the first stage of all three qualifying periods this season after stepping up from RB.
The New Zealander is but to attain some extent whereas Max Verstappen within the different Purple Bull is second within the title race with 36.
Tsunoda has proven tempo on each race weekends, solely ending out of the factors on Sunday due to his staff’s flawed two-stop pit technique.
Even after simply two weeks, Purple Bull can not afford to let McLaren, who’re already 42 factors forward, run away with the constructors’ standings.
A downcast Lawson is aware of he’s beneath risk.
“Sadly I do not actually have time but it surely’s simply a type of issues,” he conceded on Saturday.
Purple Bull staff principal Christian Horner didn’t precisely give Lawson a vote of confidence.
“I believe Liam’s had a troublesome couple of races, a troublesome weekend right here. We’ll have an excellent take a look at it,” he mentioned, however he was extra upbeat when requested about Tsunoda.
“Yuki is an skilled driver now doing an amazing job.”
– Albon’s completely happy birthday –
Alex Albon declared he was “very completely happy” after celebrating his twenty ninth birthday on Sunday with a second top-10 GP end on this season’s vastly improved Williams.
The Thai drove flawlessly within the Melbourne rain every week in the past to complete a shock fifth.
He adopted up with one other impeccable race to cross the road ninth in China, later promoted to seventh.
Williams have recruited Carlos Sainz and with two skilled males on the wheel are making big strides.
Albon completed solely eleventh within the dash however the staff turned it round.
“Contemplating the dash race, at present was an enormous step for us and it exhibits the progress we have made,” mentioned Albon, who lies sixth within the drivers’ championship with 16 factors after two race weekends — 4 greater than he scored in the entire of final season.
“We will repair points that we have now on our automobile, which is a large enchancment on the place we had been final 12 months.”
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