2026 Chinese GP: Rrussell wins the Sprint

In Shanghai, the Sprint is the earliest session of the weekend. It takes place at a time when audiences in other parts of the world are still asleep. The main sessions follow three to four hours later. Nevertheless, for the third consecutive year the Chinese round has been held in the Saturday Sprint format.

George Russell dominated Friday. The British driver set the fastest time both in the only practice session and in Sprint Qualifying, while his young Italian teammate Kimi Antonelli finished second in both sessions. The rest of the field was significantly behind, but the intrigue remained – at the start of the season, Mercedes cars have not been particularly strong off the line, and their rivals hoped to take advantage of that.

The Mercedes drivers shared the front row on the starting grid. Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton started from the second row, while Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc lined up on the third. Williams changed the setup on Alex Albon’s car, breaking parc fermé rules, so Alex started from the pit lane. The Sprint distance in Shanghai is 19 laps.

Pirelli brought its “medium” tyre trio to Shanghai — the C2, C3 and C4 compounds, which served as Hard, Medium and Soft, respectively. Hadjar started on Soft tyres, and Lawson and Alonso chose Hard, while the rest of the drivers began the race on Medium.

At the start, Hamilton gained three positions and took the lead. Arvid Lindblad immediately spun. Antonelli and Verstappen both had poor starts and lost six positions each, while Hülkenberg dropped eight places.

The stewards investigated an incident between Hadjar and Antonelli, and Kimi received a 10-second penalty for forcing his rival off the track.

Russell attempted several times to move ahead — when Hamilton’s battery ran low on the straights, he managed to pass him. However, Hamilton recovered energy and regained the lead. Leclerc, who was running just behind them, followed the fight closely, preserving his tires and avoiding an early attack.

Hamilton and Russell exchanged positions several times, but on lap 6 Russell retook the lead and managed to create a small gap. Leclerc then put pressure on Hamilton and passed him on lap 8.

Meanwhile, Antonelli overtook Norris in the battle for fourth place. On lap 9 Hamilton attacked Leclerc, but Charles managed to defend his position. Their fight allowed Antonelli to close the gap.

Hülkenberg overtook Sainz in the battle for 16th place. Antonelli continued to pressure Hamilton. Lewis defended himself, but on lap 12, the fight ended in Kimi’s favour, as he made better use of his battery.

Lindblad returned to the pits and retired from the race. Bottas was also asked to retire due to a loss of power from his power unit. Hülkenberg then stopped his car on track and ended his race as well. Meanwhile, Antonelli overtook Leclerc in the battle for second place.

The Safety Car was deployed to recover Hülkenberg’s car, and many drivers took the opportunity to change tyres. Pérez received a 5-second penalty for breaking the rules behind the Safety Car.

The restart was given on lap 17. Russell maintained the lead. Antonelli passed Bearman, Piastri overtook Lawson, and Hamilton got past Norris. After passing Lawson on lap 18 and Piastri on lap 19, Antonelli moved up to fifth place.

George Russell won the Saturday Sprint in Shanghai.
Charles Leclerc finished second, just 0.6 seconds behind the winner. Lewis Hamilton completed the mini-race in third place.

Next up is the main qualifying session for Sunday’s Grand Prix.