The 2025 Chinese Grand Prix sprint has already guaranteed itself something of an outsized place in Formula 1 history – by being the stage of an emphatic first Ferrari win for Lewis Hamilton, an occasion more significant than the points allocation attached to it.
But while Hamilton’s success was the headline item, there was a lot more going on up and down the grid – with no shortage of significant performances, whether positive or negative.
Winner
Lewis Hamilton
But, yeah, let’s start with the obvious one.
Hamilton’s progression through the Australian Grand Prix weekend already felt somewhat ahead-of-schedule – not in terms of the final gap to Charles Leclerc, but more in how quickly that gap was eroded from practice to Q3. Even with that in mind, this weekend has been a revelation.
We’ll potentially find out on Sunday whether Hamilton’s superb stint longevity in the sprint was being flattered by clean air. “I don’t want to be negative but it’s much easier when you’re in front to manage properly the tyres,” cautioned Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur to Sky – while of course praising Hamilton’s efforts.
If the pace was flattered, it won’t have been flattered this much.
Surely at least part of the explanation for what we saw today is that F1’s all-time master of stint management has already activated that skill in Ferrari red. He and those who made the splash to sign him should be positively delighted. – Valentin Khorounzhiy
Loser
Charles Leclerc
“The potential is there. Clearly. Because Lewis is using it. I am not – so I’ve got some work to do.”
It was a blunt Leclerc assessment after the sprint – typically blunt for him, so there’s probably not a ton to be read into it.
But he must know that this doesn’t look so great. He must remember, after all, how in just the second weekend alongside Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari, back in 2019, he himself showed up his Scuderia-established team-mate and then never looked back.
“Historically I’ve always been struggling like crazy here,” Leclerc added of Shanghai (though his qualifying head-to-head versus team-mates here doesn’t necessarily show that).
“But that’s not an excuse – obviously you’ve got to learn, and for now it doesn’t seem like I’m doing the right things in the car.” – VK
Winner
Max Verstappen(‘s title challenge)
Verstappen himself wasn’t really a winner in this race – he killed his Red Bull’s front tyres trying to attack Hamilton’s Ferrari and ended up ceding second place to Oscar Piastri’s McLaren as a result.
But because chief rival Lando Norris had such an abject sprint, Verstappen has closed the points gap between them to just two.
Of course, it’s far too early for anyone to be overly concerned with the championship table – but in a phase of the season where Red Bull is clearly still trying to get the RB21 to work properly, Verstappen’s job is to keep McLaren in range as far as he can.
So far, it’s job done on that count. – Ben Anderson
Loser
Lando Norris
A bad qualifying and worse opening lap meant damage limitation, and even that limitation in itself ended up ‘limited’.
Norris himself acknowledged he “wasn’t very good today” and felt “dreadful” in the race.
Better to have that in the sprint part of the weekend than in the main part. But, of course, better still would’ve been not to have it at all. – VK
Winner
Yuki Tsunoda
How do you tell Red Bull, and the world, they made a mistake by not promoting you to become Verstappen’s team-mate in 2025?
You drive like Tsunoda is doing right now.
His tow-assisted lap to qualify fifth in Melbourne was probably the maximum Racing Bulls could realistically achieve, and the fact he scored no points was down to a poor strategic decision during the final rain shower rather than any bad driving from Tsunoda.
In China, he’s picked up where he left off – qualifying strongly for the sprint (fastest of the midfield runners again) and beating the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli in the race as Norris’s McLaren went off in front of them on lap one.
So far so good in 2025 for the driver Red Bull remains convinced is too fragile to cut it against Verstappen. – BA
Winner
Lance Stroll
Stroll continues to be responsible for 100 percent of the points accrued by a better-than-expected Aston Martin team this year so far.
That’s not necessarily representative of his pace relative to team-mate Fernando Alonso, but the standings say what they say, and it’s clear that so far Stroll has had an assured start to the season.
It’s exactly what the best version of Stroll in F1 has tended to look like – dependable, smart in race situations, fast enough to make it matter. – VK
Winner
Alpine
It really didn’t look good for Alpine after sprint qualifying on Friday. First the Enstone factory had to work overtime to modify the cars’ rear wings in the wake of the FIA’s new flexible aerodynamics clampdown, then both cars fell in SQ1.
It was temping to see cause and effect here, but the team’s new racing director Dave Greenwood insisted this Friday result wasn’t a “fair reflection” of Alpine’s true performance level, and Pierre Gasly agreed the car “felt good” and he only failed to make SQ2 because of traffic compromising his push lap.
Team-mate Jack Doohan’s sprint was scruffy, including getting whacked by Liam Lawson’s Red Bull then colliding with Gabriel Bortoleto’s Sauber, but Gasly’s feisty drive from 17th to 12th, finishing right on the tail of Alex Albon’s Williams, suggests Alpine is indeed in much better shape than it looked yesterday. – BA
Loser
Williams
Williams expected to struggle here, on a track with longer corners than Melbourne and also more prevailing wind – to which every Williams of this ground-effect era so far has been super sensitive to.
So far, Alex Albon’s prediction is proving accurate. He got jumped by both Aston Martins on the first lap of the sprint and then got stuck in a nothing race behind Alonso.
Carlos Sainz, who is still not feeling at one with his new car in qualifying trim, got properly stuck into the midfield dogfight with Gasly/Hadjar/Bortoleto but was the only driver to pit for fresh tyres, so bad was his pace drop-off in the second half of the race.
Having started this season as perhaps the strongest midfield team, so far in China it looks like points are realistically out of reach for Williams. – BA
Winner
Under-fire Red Bull ‘rookies’
Isack Hadjar, 13th place, seven back from Tsunoda.
Liam Lawson, 14th lace, 11 back from Verstappen.
There’s not much to write home about in this set of results, and if this race is any kind of meaningful highlight for either’s season something has gone badly-badly wrong.
But both drivers delivered a nicely combative race, and both needed the palette-cleanser the sprint provided.
Lawson, in particular, flexed some level of comfort for arguably the first time in his stint as a Red Bull F1 driver, muscling his way past some midfield cars in moves that were perhaps on the limit of the rulebook but hardly signalled a lack of confidence.
It’s a very, very tentative ‘winner’ selection – and both now must deliver in the same key over the rest of the weekend. But there’s something to build upon. – VK
