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Lap 3/56: Neither McLaren has emerged from the pits, watching on from the side-lines as Russell turns on the jets on the home straight to blast past Hamilton and take P2.
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Lap 2/56: Antonelli blasts past Hamilton and re-takes the lead from Hamilton. Russell moves past Leclerc for third, with Gasly, Colapinto, Lawson, Ocon, Lindblad, and Verstappen rounding out the top ten.
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Lap 1/56: The Ferraris are blistering off the line and Hamilton moves into the lead! Leclerc attacks fiercely too and gets past Russell but Antonelli is just able to hold him off.
A brief yellow flag comes out as Perez goes off at turn three but he’s quick to recover.
Hadjar spins out and brings Bearman out with him, too. There’s action everywhere as Hadjar is told to pit.
wtf, Alonso is up to tenth.
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Lights Out!
We are away in China
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Confirmation that Bortoleto is out of the Chinese GP.
Norris and Piastri, meanwhile, are having different issues, per the broadcast. No word on what those issues are.
And now Albon is out of his car… are we down to 18?
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Updated at 03.04 EDT
The formation lap has begun, without the McLarens of Piastri and Norris, as well as the Audi of Bortoleto, taking part.
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Updated at 03.03 EDT
Piastri, who won here last year, is back in the garage, too! The Australian’s car has been pushed back into the pits, placing it alongside Norris’! What’s happening at McLaren?!?! Are either of them able to start?
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Updated at 03.03 EDT
Norris has his driving suit on and is moving as if he’s going to compete but there’s still plenty of doubts surrounding his ability to take part.
Red Bull, meanwhile, are downplaying any issues with Verstappen’s car.
“[Verstappen] is going to be alright, we had a small issue with the rear wing coming to the grid, it has been replaced now,” said Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies.
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Updated at 02.59 EDT
What’s going to be the best strategy for today? With the added data drawn from the sprint race yesterday, a one-stopper looks to be the way to go according to Pirelli; going from medium to hards between laps 17 to 23.
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Ohh boy, some more issues being worked on ahead of this race, joining the electrical repairs being made to Norris’ McLaren.
On the grid, the engine cover has been taken off the Red Bull of Verstappen, with work underway. Elsewhere, word is that Bortoleto’s Audi has been pushed back into the pits.
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Can the Ferraris use their fast starts to steal a march on Mercedes today? The ability of the two cars in red to get out of the blocks is one of the few aspects that the Mercedes aren’t dominating in this new, electrical management era.
Leclerc seized the lead heading into turn one in Melbourne last week and Hamilton frequently exchanged the lead with Russell in the early stages of the sprint race.
Of course, keeping the Mercedes at bay when/if they do take the lead is another matter entirely…
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Updated at 02.46 EDT
McLaren aren’t having the most restful of lead-ins to races this season, are they? Norris having issues now, a week on from Piastri putting his car into the wall during the reconnaissance laps ahead of Melbourne.
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Before we go on any further, though, perhaps we should check in on Max Verstappen, whose tone throughout the 2026 campaign and its new era of rules and regulations thus far bears some resemblance to that old Onion headline reading “Man Who Thought He’d Lost All Hope Loses Last Additional Bit Of Hope He Didn’t Even Know He Still Had”
After Friday’s practice sessions he said “We have never had anything this bad,” after putting the Red Bull through its paces and his efforts to complete a lap in qualifying yesterday as being about “survival”.
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Norris’ McLaren is still in the garage and it now doesn’t have a seat in it: mechanics needing to remove it so they could get a look at the electrics of his car. Some frantic work taking place with just over 20 minutes to lights out.
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Russell’s issues in qualifying didn’t prevent him from seeing off challenges from the Ferraris to win the first sprint race of the season. That result left the championship standings looking like this.
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George Russell, Mercedes, 33
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Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, 22
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Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 22
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Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, 18
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Lando Norris, McLaren, 15
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Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 8
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Oliver Bearman, Haas, 7
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Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls, 4
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Oscar Piastri, McLaren, 3
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Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi, 2
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Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls, 2
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Pierre Gasly, Alpine, 1
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Esteban Ocon, Haas
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Alexander Albon, Williams
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Franco Colapinto, Alpine
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Carlos Sainz, Williams
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Sergio Perez, Cadillac
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Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
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Nico Hulkenberg, Audi
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Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
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Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac
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Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
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So Norris hasn’t come out from the McLaren garage to complete reconnaissance laps of the Shanghai circuit, with word that work is taking place on an electrical issue.
Gremlins in the electrics are becoming something of a theme this weekend, previously striking Russell ahead of Q3 and restricting him to just one, off-tune flying lap.
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Updated at 02.38 EDT
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The grid in Shanghai
Here’s how they’ll begin in 魔都, the Magic City.
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Kimi Antonelli Mercedes
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George Russell Mercedes
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Lewis Hamilton Ferrari
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Charles Leclerc Ferrari
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Oscar Piastri McLaren
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Lando Norris McLaren
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Pierre Gasly Alpine
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Max Verstappen Red Bull
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Isack Hadjar Red Bull
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Oliver Bearman Haas
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Nico Hulkenberg Audi
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Franco Colapinto Alpine
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Esteban Ocon Haas
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Liam Lawson Racing Bulls
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Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls
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Gabriel Bortoleto Audi
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Carlos Sainz Wlliams
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Fernando Alonso Aston Martin
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Valtteri Bottas Cadillac
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Lance Stroll Aston Martin
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Sergio Perez Cadillac
Alexander Albon and his Williams, which is significantly overweight and been giving he and teammate Sainz fits all season, will start from pit lane after breaking parc ferme rules to make changes to his suspension set-up.
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Updated at 02.29 EDT
Significant news has broken already today, of course, after it was confirmed that races scheduled for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in April will not be going ahead to the ongoing conflict between the United States and Israel, and Iran.
double quotation markIt has been confirmed today that, after careful evaluations, due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East region, the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix will not take place in April. While several alternatives were considered, it was ultimately decided that no substitutions will be made in April.
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Huh, there’s an interview with Leclerc on the broadcast and, apparently, he was born in the year of the fire ox. This apparently means that extreme success and rapid career progression can come in the year of the fire horse, which 2026 is.
Cool. Just looked it up and I’m a metal goat. Sounds like something you’d make an album about.
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Updated at 02.22 EDT
As Giles Richards writes in his report on qualifying, however, Antonelli’s history-making drive wasn’t just a triumph for the youngster but, in addition, some level of vindication from his Mercedes principal, Toto Wolff.
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Preamble
Joey Lynch
Howdy y’all, it’s ya boi Joey Lynch, back to take you through all the action from Shanghai as the 2026 Formula One world championship marks its second race of the campaign.
For the first, but probably not the last time, Kimi Antonelli will start from pole today: the 19-year-old becoming the youngest pole sitter in F1 history after going fastest in his Mercedes yesterday. At 19 years, 6 months, 18 days, he (handily) broke Jensen Button’s record as he topped the grid, the Brit having previously taken the mark when he went fastest in Italy back in 2008, doing so at 21 years, 2 months, 11 days.
Adding a bit of a further thrill for the youngster, he became first Italian to go pole since Giancarlo Fisichella went fastest while driving for Force India but at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix. A penny for the thoughts of Ferrari fans that neither of those drives came in red.
Despite a few issues that restricted him to just a single flying lap in Q3, championship favourite George Russell will start alongside Antonelli on the front row of the grid, with the all Mercedes lockout up front mirrored on the second-row, where the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will start, and the third-row, where the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will commence.
Plenty to look forward to, including plenty of rancour as the new era of regulations continues to serve as a major talking point. So let’s get to it.
Lights out at 3pm local/6pm AEDT/7am GMT.
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