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Lewis Hamilton on track at China in his SF-25 (Photo by Motorsport.com ) Lewis Hamilton claimed his first ever sprint race victory Saturday afternoon in the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race in dominating fashion, and this marks his first win in the Scuderia Ferrari colors. Hamilton lined up on Pole position for the 19 lap sprint race ahead of 4 time champion Max Verstappen. Down on the grid during pre race introductions, there were last minute changes to Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber and he started the sprint race from the pit lane. On the opening lap as the five red lights went out, everyone got away smoothly but at the end of sector 1, Lando Norris, who had started 6th, dipped his left side tires into the grass, falling back multiple spots, ending up behind Lance Stroll in the 9th position at the end of the first lap. Throughout the first couple of laps as everyone began to spread out, the top 3 of Hamilton, Verstappen, and Piastri began to pull away from the rest of the field and had a race of their own. Verstappen began to slowly close the gap to Hamilton but was not close enough for the DRS. About halfway into the 19 lap sprint race, Verstappen began to lose pace to Hamilton, allowing Oscar Piastri to close the gap to second place and Piastri eventually got by Verstappen on lap 16. Verstappen had said over the radio "Both of my front tires are dead" and as the laps went on, the tire degradation got worse for Verstappen. Meanwhile, further back in the pack, Lance Stroll had reported to his team he was having a DRS issue. This allowed Lando Norris to close the gap and overtake Stroll for the 8th position. As the laps wound down, once Oscar Piastri had gotten by Verstappen, he had his eyes set on Lewis Hamilton for the lead. However, the pace from Piastri was not enough. Lewis Hamilton crossed the line to claim the checkered flag, not only for his first ever sprint race victory, but also his first with Ferrari as Oscar Piastri came across the line in 2nd with Verstappen in 3rd just ahead of George Russell in the 4th position. Further back in the pack, Charles Leclerc finished in the 5th position ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in 6th, Kimi Antonelli in 7th, and Lando Norris who had dropped places on the opening lap recovers to claim the last points paying position for the sprint race in the 8th position. On the last lap, Alpine driver Jack Doohan went for an overtaking opportunity on Gabriel Bortoletto in the hairpin in sector 3, but ended up colliding with the Sauber driver, spinning Bortoletto out, causing minor damage to both of their cars. Lewis Hamilton celebrating his first sprint race victory in Shanghai (Photo by Greg Baker/Agence France-Presse) Lewis Hamilton claiming his first ever sprint race victory means he joins the list of Max Verstappen, Valtteri Bottas, Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Sergio Perez, and Lando Norris as sprint race winners in Formula 1.

Australian Grand Prix winner Lando Norris for McLaren on top of the podium in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) Lando Norris wins the Australian Grand Prix after what seemed to be a race of survival from the start to the checkered flag. Norris collects his 5th career win, his first at Albert Park, and for the first time in his career, is the overall championship leader. The conditions were quite tricky throughout the entire race as there was trouble before the race had even started. Down on the grid during pre-race introductions, there were discussions with some teams whether to start on the intermediate tires or the full wet tires, but everyone elected to start with the intermediates. Red Bull racing driver Liam Lawson and Haas F1 driver Oliver Bearman both elected to start the race from the pit lane as there were last minute changes to their cars. Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar into the barrier on the formation lap. (Photo by F1) As the formation lap began and all the drivers began to leave the grid, it all seemed fine for everyone except for one driver. Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar preparing for his debut race in Formula 1 along with many others, had lost control of his car just after turn 1 and slid into the barriers, crashing out before the race even started. Due to this incident, the formation lap was aborted and the rest of the drivers returned to their grid slots and waited for the accident to be cleaned up so they could do the formation lap once again. Once the drivers took part in the formation lap once again, they all made it to their grid slots with no issues and it was time to prepare for the five red lights to go out for the start of the grand prix. As the lights went out, Max Verstappen jumped Oscar Piastri off the start heading into turn 1 getting up to 2nd place and set his sights on Lando Norris. Jack Doohan exiting his Alpine after crashing out of the race on the opening lap. (Photo by F1) The chaos didn’t stop there as Alpine Driver Jack Doohan in his 3rd race for the French team found the barrier and ultimately crashed out just past turn five at the end of sector 1 on track, ending his race and bringing out the safety car. Doohan stated "I don't really understand what happened until I got back. Just looking at it, whether it was the white line, the inters not up to temperature, it just seemed as I upshifted to fourth I lost the car. During the safety car period, on lap 2, Carlos Sainz, in his new team with Williams this season, lost control in the final corner and crashed out of the race. Sainz radioed to his team saying, “I had a massive torque surge” which means all the brake bias goes to the rear of the car with no front braking ultimately leading to the cause of the spin for Carlos Sainz. Carlos Sainz' Williams Mercedes being Carried away after his spin in the final corner (Photo by © XPBimages) Due to Sainz’ accident in the final corner, the drivers followed the safety car through the pitlane until the end of the safety car period and the race resumed at the start of lap 8. On the safety restart, Yuki Tsunoda and Fernando Alonso were both noted from the FIA of a safety car infringement, but no action was taken as a result. On lap 12, DRS was enabled and although it seemed questionable, the FIA deemed the track dry enough. A couple of laps later, Lando Norris was told by his team of the risk of rain increasing, and Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli slightly gets his tires into the wet grass and spun around in sector 1 after just getting past the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg but keeps it out of the wall and continues. Just after that, Max Verstappen locks up his front left tire in turn 11, goes off the track, handing second place to Oscar Piastri. As the race went on the two McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri began to pull away from Max Verstappen and the rest of the field and began to have a race of their own. Piastri began to catch Norris. However, Piastri was told by the team to hold position behind Norris, which Piastri responded with “I’m faster, but okay”. As the race continued, the track began to dry quickly as it raised the question for teams and drivers when to pit for slick dry tires. Piastri began to lose a little bit of ground to Norris and was around three seconds behind the race leader until on lap 34, two-time champion Fernando Alonso spun around crashing out of the race bringing out the safety car. Fernando Alonso exiting his Aston Martin Mercedes after crashing out on lap 34. (Photo by Elizabeth Blackstock) With this safety car coming out, this caused everyone to make the decision to go onto the slick dry tires with a mix of drivers being on the medium compound tires and the hard compound tires. During the pit stops, there was a close call with Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoletto almost colliding with each other in the pitlane. The FIA deemed an unsafe release from the Sauber crew and the FIA gave Bortoletto a 5 second time penalty as a result. The race later resumed back to green flag conditions on lap 42, however despite all the drivers pitting for dry tires, teams quickly radioed to their drivers after the safety car period had ended, telling them there is another threat of heavy rain that would only last for a small period of time towards the end of the race meaning drivers would have to be extra cautious in the treacherous conditions. On lap 44 the rain arrived, and chaos had begun. In sector 3, the track was completely soaked from the heavy rain and both McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri slid off the track. Oscar Piastri stuck in the grass as the rain began to fall ©XPBimages Norris was able to keep the car pointed in the right direction meanwhile Piastri was the unlucky one in this situation and spun out in the penultimate corner and briefly getting stuck in the grass not only losing second place to Max Verstappen but also falling completely out of the points. Just after this incident Charles Leclerc also had a spin but kept going. Norris pitted immediately for the intermediate tires while Max Verstappen stayed out another lap. There were a mix of drivers going straight into the pitlane for the intermediate tires as the rain continued to fall and others staying out on dry tires. Max Verstappen being one of those few drivers who gambled on staying out on the slick tires ultimately had to come into the pitlane giving up the lead of the race due to the conditions of the track being too slippery for the dry slick tires. Just after that occurred, Max Verstappen’s teammate Liam Lawson who had also stayed out on dry tires as it was continuing to rain, spun in a very similar way to Isack Hadjar did and crashed out of the race in turn 1. While that happened, Gabriel Bortoletto had spun in the last sector of the track due to broken rear suspension causing him to also crash out of the race. These two separate incidents brought out the safety car once again. Liam Lawson into the barrier in turn 2 Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images Gabriel Bortoletto spinning into the wall due to broken rear suspension. Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images While the safety car was out on track once again, there were discussions about whether the track would dry up quick enough to pit for dry tires again or stay out on the intermediate tires. The safety car ended on lap 51, meaning it would be a 6-lap dash to the finish. On the restart, Charles Leclerc was able to get by his new teammate Lewis Hamilton for the ninth position, and shortly after passed Pierre Gasly after Gasly went wide into turn 1 and lost positions to Leclerc and Hamilton. At the end of lap 54, the FIA decided to enable DRS once again as it began to quickly dry up on track and the victory of the race was decided between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Even though Verstappen got close to Norris with the help of DRS, it was not enough to dethrone Lando Norris as Norris took the checkered flag to claim his fifth career victory with Verstappen finishing just behind him in second followed by George Russell in the third position to complete the podium. In the 4th position was Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, becoming the second youngest points scorer in Formula 1 at 18 years 6 months and 19 days old behind Max Verstappen. Behind him was Alex Albon in the 5th position followed by Lance Stroll in 6th, Nico Hulkenberg in 7th scoring Sauber’s best result since 2022, Charles Leclerc in 8th, Oscar Piastri who had spun earlier in the race and recovered to 9th after completing a last lap pass on Lewis Hamilton with Hamilton finishing in the final points paying position in 10th. Just before the race had ended, Antonelli, who crossed the line in 4th, was given a 5 second time penalty for an unsafe release in the pitlane earlier in the race which dropped him to 5th position behind Alex Albon but later had that 5 second time penalty removed meaning he gets to keep 4th place. Lando Norris leading the Australian Grand Prix ahead of reigning F1 Champion Max Verstappen. (Photo by Scott Barbour/The Associated Press) With Norris winning the season opener, this means that McLaren lead the driver standings for the first time in 13 years since 2012 at the Canadian Grand Prix with Lewis Hamilton. It also means that Max Verstappen’s record of leading the drivers championship comes to an end at an astounding 1,029 days in a row.