Piastri’s season goes from bad to worse in China; Mercedes prodigy Kimi Antonelli wins maiden GP

Mercedes prodigy Kimi Antonelli has won the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix after a commanding drive with teammate George Russell finishing in second.

After a tight battle between teammates, Lewis Hamilton snatched a podium finish with Charles Leclerc in fourth.

The two Ferrari drivers gave the sold-out Shanghai crowd their money’s worth, with some sensational overtakes throughout the race, with the seven-time world champion ultimately victorious and claiming his first GP podium with Ferrari.

“Fantastic job guys… we’ve got work to do, but I believe, Forza Ferrari,” Hamilton declared over the radio.

However, it was a disastrous day for McLaren, with both cars ruled out of the Chinese Grand Prix before the race even started, with McLaren identifying electrical issues with the cars.

“Unfortunately, we identified separate issues on both cars which prevented them from starting the Chinese GP, with Oscar’s being removed from the grid shortly before the formation lap,” the team said on social media.

After the race, Lando Norris faced the media and said the team realised there was an issue “about an hour” before the race.

“They [the team] know it’s an issue we can’t fix for now, and they need to look further in to it,” Norris said.

The race had several causalities, with seven drivers retiring before or during the race.

Besides the double McLaren DNS (Did not start), Williams driver Alex Albon and Gabriel Bortoleto were also unable to start.

Meanwhile, Aston Martin duo Lance Stroll stalled earlier and Fernando Alonso retired, citing vibration problems with the car. Four-time world champion Max Verstappen was forced to retire his car after electronics issues.

This result is pretty special for the Italians out there. Antonelli has broken a long drought, the last Italian to win a grand prix was Giancarlo Fisichella, who won the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Here are a few pictures from the podium celebration and the race.

We’ve got four laps left and Antonelli has almost clinched his maiden Gp win. He is nine seconds ahead of his teammate George Russell, with Lewis Hamilton in third.

“Max we are going to need to retire the car,” Verstappen’s engineer tells him over the radio.

It is unclear what the issue is, perhaps an issue with hydraulics or power.

Verstappen has made his way back to the pits, the Dutchman’s first retirement in Shanghai.

The drivers are also enjoying the battles on track today.

Leclerc overtook Hamilton earlier but the seven-time world champion fought back and overtook his teammate at the first turn.

“That was actually quite a fun battle,” Leclerc said over the radio. It sure was!

Antonelli is still leading the grand prix, with his teammate George Russell in second. It is very unlikely the Ferrari can catch the Mercedes, however Leclerc and Hamilton are fighting for a podium.

Antonelli has a very healthy seven-second buffer, so let’s be honest.

The most exciting part of this race right now is the battle between the two Ferraris. On Lap 36, Leclerc locked up into the hairpin, and Hamilton went through to snatch P3.

It remains unclear if Ferrari will step in and tell the two drivers to preserve their own places. However, this early in the championship, they’re likely to let them race.

Meanwhile, Sky Sports have told viewers Fernando Alonso retire the car because he was starting to “lose feelings in his hands”.

At the Australian Grand Prix, new team principal Adrian Newey said vibrations from the car have been transmitting to the drivers’ fingertips and the drivers were “at risk of nerve damage”.