Martin Brandl on the results of the Chinese Grand Prix

      Former Formula 1 racer and Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brandl summed up the results of the Chinese Grand Prix…

      Sprint weekends are always stressful from Friday morning to Sunday evening. In Shanghai, the situation was complicated by a tight battle in the leadership group and a lot of young pilots, for whom the season was just beginning.

      Everyone was sure that the McLaren would get a slight advantage, but on the very smooth, excellent grip of the new asphalt, where the pole time was three seconds faster than last year, it was not easy to drive a clean lap.

      The mandatory minimum tire pressure was increased due to the high aerodynamic load in the 270-degree first, as well as in turns 12 and 13. Before a fast lap, the drivers had to stay in the pit lane for a while so that the temperature and, consequently, the tire pressure decreased. During the weekend, the minimum pressure was increased by another psi in front and back, which affected the results.

      As a result, Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari and Max Verstappen's Red Bull were on the front row of Saturday's sprint, while Oscar Piastri's McLaren and George Russell's Mercedes were on the front row of Sunday's race.

      In the sprint, Hamilton controlled the course of the race, handled the granulation of the tires better than others and very quickly won his first victory for Ferrari. After the previous weekend in Melbourne, which he described as "disastrous," victory was the perfect antidote. Remarkably, neither Lewis nor Ferrari had ever won a sprint before.

      Piastri finished second, ahead of Verstappen, who honestly missed him – he also had problems with granulation and tire wear.

      Championship leader Lando Norris made one of his mistakes on the first lap, and only got a point for eighth place. The McLaren cars are certainly fast, but they are very difficult to drive.

      These days, teams are allowed to change settings after the sprint and before Saturday's qualifying in an attempt to achieve better speed and handling. It seems that many have succeeded.

      On race day, no one knows how the Hard tires will behave. For the weekend with the Saturday sprint, despite the additional qualification and sprint, each rider is allocated 12, not 13 sets of slicks.

      No one wants to try two sets of Hard in advance and waste them, providing everyone else with useful information for free. This was especially true considering how heavily the Medium tires were granulated in the sprint.

      Qualifying for the main race was a duel between Piastri and Norris, two McLaren drivers, which the young Australian won this time. A great lap allowed George Russell in the Mercedes to wedge between them and start from the front row.

      The weather in Shanghai was unusually pleasant over the weekend, although clouds covered the sky at the start. At the start, Piastri pinned Russell, who started slightly better, to the pit wall so that George could not enter the high-speed first corner cleanly. This allowed Norris to slip through the outer radius and come in second – great teamwork.

      Verstappen skidded on the Red Bull, which allowed Hamilton and Leclair to attack him. Leclair accelerated, but bounced off the curb and crashed into his partner, breaking off the side plate of the front wing, which flew to the side, but, fortunately, not into Hamilton's tire.

      Surprisingly, Leclair, despite the damaged wing, which was not changed at the pit stop, turned out to be faster – and Lewis missed him. Leclair tried very hard, it must have been painful for him to watch Hamilton win the sprint the day before.

      It was expected that the race would be held with two pit stops according to the Medium/Hard/Hard scheme. Three riders from the tail of the peloton tried the reverse option and started on the Hard track. The first signs were that these tires were working well, but the data was contradictory – Liam Lawson changed the Red Bull tires on the 18th lap, Oliver Berman on the 26th on the Haas, and Lance Stroll on the Aston Martin reached the 36th.

      The leaders, controlling the pace at Medium, made their first pit stop on lap 14. Since the McLaren drivers were driving quite close to each other, Norris had to wait until Lap 15, eventually ending up behind Russell again. It took another overtaking move, which took place in a fierce struggle on Lap 18, restoring the lead of the two McLarens.

      The Hard tires looked good, and the teams realized that, contrary to all expectations, they would be able to reach the finish line without another pit stop, which takes 23 seconds in China, if everything goes well.

      At that moment, we saw that Verstappen was also in the race – his car had found the right grip on the track. Less fuel, track conditions, or maybe the realization that he no longer needed to babysit the tires allowed him to catch up with the Ferrari. As a result, Max showed his best time at the very end of the race.

      Hamilton made a second pit stop because he had nothing to lose except to get behind Verstappen, but on much better tires. Lewis actively attacked until the end of the race, which could have been the reason for his subsequent disqualification.

      Everyone who made two pit stops - Hamilton and both Racing Bulls drivers – didn't win anything.

      There was a question whether Norris would be able to challenge his teammate, Oscar Piastri, but the gradual failure of the brakes on Lando's car, which were practically absent on the last lap, put an end to this struggle. Norris did his best to keep Russell, who had another good day for Mercedes.

      This is the 50th winning double in McLaren's history, and the team is really on the rise right now.

      There were intense duels all over the peloton, not least thanks to Liam Lawson and Jack Duane, who in many ways feel unfairly exposed at the start of the season. They may well be replaced.

      For the second race in a row, Fernando Alonso was unable to finish, this time due to problems with the rear brakes.

      After the race, the stewards disqualified both Ferrari and Pierre Gasly's Alpine. Leclair and Gasly – because of the insufficient weight of the cars. Last year at Spa, in the case of George Russell, we saw that a long series of laps on one set of tires consumes several kilograms of tread. In addition, the pace of the race was high, the safety car did not leave, the riders spent a lot of fuel, which led to a decrease in mass. Leclair's broken front wing was allowed to be replaced, but the weight of his car was still insufficient. Anyway, this is a miscalculation of the team, which did not leave enough reserves for all occasions.

      Hamilton's car was excluded from the protocol for exceeding the wear rate of the control bar under the bottom by 0.5 mm. This rule was introduced to reduce costs so that teams would not lower aerodynamically sensitive cars too low by changing super-expensive bottoms on a daily basis.

      Despite winning the sprint, reading newspapers, especially Italian ones, will be painful for Ferrari this week.

      Kimi Antonelli's car suffered damage to the bottom due to debris on the first lap, but he drove the race confidently, finishing sixth after all the disqualifications. The fans knew something we didn't, recognizing him as the "Racer of the Day."

      Norris leaves China with a one-point lead over Verstappen than before the stage, but Piastri is now only 10 points behind. The next race will be held in Suzuka. The McLaren drivers' fight among themselves will be intense.