Kimi Antonelli claimed his maiden Formula 1 victory in the Chinese Grand Prix beating Mercedes team mate George Russell as Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton claimed his first Grand Prix podium for the Scuderia after a thrilling intra-team battle.
Having become the youngest Grand Prix polesitter on Saturday, Antonelli was only briefly headed at the start of Sunday’s race in Shanghai, losing the lead to Hamilton who got the jump on both Mercedes from P3.
Re-taking the lead before the end of the second lap, the 19 year old Italian was never headed again, retaining first after his only pitstop under the sole Safety Car period early in proceedings.
Despite a nervous moment after running deep at Turn 14 hairpin with four laps remaining, Antonelli finished 5.5 seconds clear of Russell to become the second youngest winner of a Grand Prix.
The full top 10 are- P1: Antonelli, P2: Russell, P3: Hamilton, P4: Leclerc, P5: Bearman, P6: Gasly, P7: Lawson, P8: Hadjar, P9: Sainz and P10: Colapinto.
What a race for Kimi Antonelli! He pretty much had a perfect race, apart from Lewis leading for one lap, but he kept it cool and collected, which is great to see in such a young driver! George Russell was right there with him, which is another great result for Mercedes.
Hamilton has now achieved his first podium with Ferrari in a Grand Prix race! So well deserved and he got the work done to be rewarded with this. As for his teammate Leclerc P4 for the Monegasque the pair had a nice little battle between them. sometimes it looked a too little close to comfort, but it was actually nice and respectful.
P5 for Mr Ollie Bearman! What a performance from the Brit! They have had a brilliant start to the season and need to carry on the momentum!
P6 for Gasly, a lovely finish for the Alpine driver, a great follow up from the weekend in Australia and to make it even better, Colapinto finished 10th meaning he scored his first points for Alpine!
A disappointing race for the McLaren’s having both drivers did not start due to two separate issues but both looking like electrical issues. A big shame for Piastri as he hasn’t started a Grand Prix this season and is behind and for Norris seemed like he was getting pretty well this weekend so a big shame for the team.
As for the Red Bull’s a good race for Hadjar, scoring his first points for the team! As for Verstappen he DNF’ed and looked like an engine related problem as he got told to retire the car and managed to bring it back into the pitlane, not the best of starts for the Red Bull team.
Gabriel Bortoleto and Alex Albon also failed to start the race due to car problems on the way to the grid, not at all what both of their teams would want.
Now we have a break and the next race being the 27th to 29th March for the Japanese Grand Prix!
Jordan's Track Talk 
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