Piastri hails ‘mega’ McLaren as both Ferraris disqualified at Chinese GP

Oscar Piastri hailed his “mega” McLaren after winning a Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday later overshadowed by the disqualifications of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc for technical infringements.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was also kicked out after Piastri led a McLaren one-two from pole position with Lando Norris second.

Almost three hours after the chequered flag, stewards ruled that Leclerc and Gasly had cars that weighed less than the 800 kilogram minimum, while Hamilton was found to have excessive plank wear underneath his car.

Leclerc had finished fifth and Hamilton sixth. Their points have been stripped with all the drivers below them gaining places.

Gasly finished 11th so was already out of the points.

It means that Esteban Ocon moves up to fifth, Kimi Antonelli to sixth, Alex Albon to seventh and Oliver Bearman to eighth.

Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz were promoted to score points for ninth and 10th respectively.

It was a disastrous end to a weekend that had started so brilliantly for Ferrari when Hamilton took his maiden win for his new team in Saturday’s sprint.

The plank assembly is a skid plate which is designed to wear away when the floor strikes against bumps on the track or kerbs.

If it is too worn it can improve performance as cars can run closer to track, increasing “ground effect” down force.

Ferrari said later they had “no intention to gain any advantage”.

The Italian team issued a statement saying Leclerc’s one-stop race strategy had caused high tyre wear accounting for the weight breach.

They added they had misjudged Hamilton’s plank wear “by a small margin”.

“We will learn from what happened today and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again.”

During the race Piastri kept a cool head to bounce back from the disappointment of his spin in the closing laps of the season-opener in Melbourne a week ago.

From the moment he fended off George Russell’s Mercedes at the first bend, Piastri was in total control for all 56 laps around the 5.451km Shanghai International Circuit as he took his third grand prix win.

‘Lucky Norris’ 

Norris darted past from third on the grid at the same turn and the two McLarens then sped away, leaving Russell to take his second third-place finish of the season.

It was McLaren’s 50th one-two finish in their long history.

“It’s been an incredible weekend, the car has been pretty mega,” said Piastri, 23, after McLaren made a one-stop strategy work to perfection.

“Very, very happy. The hard was a much better tyre than everyone expected so to go all the way to the end was a bit of a surprise, but a happy surprise.”

Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen snatched fourth place after a thrilling late pass on Leclerc.

Norris had to cope with a late brake issue which forced him to settle for second rather than launch a challenge on his teammate.

“I was lucky. Lucky to finish the race today and that’s not something you want to be saying,” said a relieved Norris, for whom the finish line came just in time.

“Brakes are something you hate but something you really do need and it can save your life,” he added.

Norris leads the championship after two race weekends on 44 points from Verstappen on 36. Russell is on 35 with Piastri closing in on 34.

Russell was delighted with third place.

“The car has been great this weekend and probably one of my best weekends in Formula One in terms of performance, so really pleased with that,” said the Englishman.

Four-time world champion Verstappen showed all his race craft and experience to nurse his tyres to perfection, biding his time to make his move on Leclerc.

“I suddenly picked up tyre grip… where others maybe plateaued a bit more,” he said.

“The first half of the race was quite tough but we set out to do our own pace.”

Haas were much improved from Melbourne, where they ran 13th and 14th, finishing with two cars in the points with Ocon and rookie Bearman.

The third round of the season is the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on April 4-6.