Piastri beats Norris in dominant McLaren one-two before Ferraris disqualified

Oscar Piastri beat team-mate Lando Norris as McLaren sealed a dominant one-two at the Chinese Grand Prix, while both Ferrari drivers were disqualified for illegal cars.

Pole-sitter Piastri never looked like relinquishing the win, the third of his F1 career, and made the perfect response after spinning last weekend at his home event in Melbourne.

Norris was given a scare in the closing laps due to a brake problem but held onto second from Russell, who made it back-to-back podiums to start the season in third.

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Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had finished fifth and sixth respectively, but were both disqualified for illegal cars, leaving Ferrari to come away from Sunday's race in Shanghai with no points.

Hamilton was disqualified for excessive plank wear underneath his Ferrari, which is the same infringement that cost him second place at the 2023 United States GP when he was a Mercedes driver.

Leclerc, and Pierre Gasly who was originally 11th, meanwhile were thrown out of the race due to underweight cars. Both drivers were found to be 1kg under the 800kg weight limit.

After minor contact with Hamilton on the opening lap, Leclerc suffered front wing damage for the whole race but the FIA replaced the damaged wing with an official one and the car remained below the limit.

Esteban Ocon scored his first points for Haas in his new position of fifth, ahead of Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and Williams' Alex Albon in seventh.

British teenager Oliver Bearman impressively charged through the field in the second half of the race on an alternative strategy to claim eighth.

Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and Williams' Carlos Sainz were promoted to the points after the three disqualifications.

Piastri cruises to victory as Norris overcomes brake issues

Aside from the pit stop phase, Piastri led every lap of the Chinese Grand Prix and showed why he is a title contender this year.

He helped team-mate Norris by squeezing Russell down to Turn 1, which allowed Norris to sweep around the outside and move into second place with everyone aware of the importance of track position in Shanghai.

Norris was undercut by Russell though during the first, and only, pit stops for the leaders but the McLaren driver quickly got back into second place with a move down the inside into the first corner.

At one point, Norris was making inroads into his five-second deficit to Piastri before he was encouraged to manage his tyres so never got within two seconds of the Australian.

In the final six laps, Norris told the team he was suffering from a "long pedal" due to a brake issue so he backed off but had enough of a margin to fend off Russell by 1.3 seconds.

Reigning world champion Verstappen maximised the performance of his car again in fourth when it looked like he was going to be sixth.

After Hamilton decided to pit for a second time, Verstappen moved up to fifth and caught Leclerc before overtaking him with a stunning move around the outside at Turn 3.

Red Bull and Ferrari will be concerned by McLaren's pace after finishing over 15 seconds behind race-winner Piastri, before the red cars were disqualified, on a track that traditionally demonstrates the best car aerodynamically.

McLaren's one-two puts them 25 points ahead of Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship ahead of Suzuka in two weeks' time, with Red Bull 42 points adrift and Ferrari already 61 points behind.

Elsewhere, in the largely incident-free race, Haas' Bearman made the alternative hard-medium strategy work with some great overtakes on his way to 10th, which became eighth.

Red Bull's Liam Lawson showed little pace down in 12th and rookie Jack Doohan was given the only penalty of the race for forcing Isack Hadjar off the track on his way to 13th.

Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda were set to score points but Racing Bull's two-stop strategy put them both in the pack and they could not come back through the field.

Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was the only retiree due to a brake problem.

What the top three said

Oscar Piastri, McLaren - 1st: "It's been an incredible weekend from start to finish. The car's been pretty mega the whole time. I think today was a bit of a surprise with how differently the tyres behaved.

"I'm just so proud of the whole weekend. This is what I feel like I deserved from last week. The team did a mega job with the one-two. I'm very happy.

"On the medium it was still a bit tricky but much better than yesterday, and then the hard was a much better tyre than everyone expected, or certainly than we expected.

"To go all the way to the end like that was a bit of a surprise, but a happy surprise."

Lando Norris, McLaren - 2nd: "A few fun moments. The start, I was hoping for exactly that, so Turn 1 went to plan. Then George got me on the pit stops. I was a little bit nervous but our pace was a lot better in the second stint.

So a tough race just with the management. I don't think many people expected a one-stop today so it was good and Oscar drove well, he was quick the whole race.

"Tried to get close but in the end just couldn't. He deserved the win and drove very well all weekend. I'm happy with second, it's good points and great points for us as a team with a one-two. Just how we wanted the race to go."

George Russell, Mercedes - 3rd: "Really pleased with the P3. We knew McLaren were a smidge quicker than us, a few crucial points, but well done to those two.

"I felt it from quite early on that a one-stop could be possible and it turned out it was slightly easier than we probably all anticipated.

But, nevertheless, the car has been great this weekend and probably one of my best weekends in Formula 1 in terms of performance, so really pleased with that."

Formula 1 heads to the iconic Suzuka Circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix on April 4-6, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - No contract, cancel anytime