Russell survives early scrap with Hamilton to win Shanghai Sprint

George Russell won the Shanghai sprint from pole position to continue his perfect start to the season, despite losing the lead to Lewis Hamilton on the first lap.

Hamilton executed a perfect start from fourth on the grid, but Russell, unlike in Australia, also got a good launch. The Ferrari driver held the inside line underneath third-starting Lando Norris to slot into P2, from where he began applying pressuring the leading Mercedes. His moment came with an opportunistic move into Turn 9, diving down Russell’s inside to catch the pole-getter by surprise and take the lead.

In what would become the template for the next several laps, Russell powered past Hamilton on the back straight to move ahead easily into the braking zone, but drained his battery doing so, allowing Hamilton to take back the lead with a gutsy around-the-outside move at the first turn with the help of his electrical boost.

The top two swapped several times in the same places — Russell always getting the job done at the final hairpin, Hamilton biting back around the first two turns — until lap five, when the Mercedes got a better exit onto the back straight to draw level with the Ferrari in the braking zone. It allowed him to keep some battery in reserve to rebuff Hamilton at the first turn, and when the older Englishman couldn’t hit back immediately, the battle was decided.

After perfectly managing a later safety car restart, Russell’s path to victory was assured.

“This is pretty fun,” Russell said. “A lot of strategy at play, and how you do the overtakes is not easy. I hope it was a fun race to watch. I’m really happy to get the win.

“Lewis did an amazing job in the early laps. He caught me off guard with 20 years experience — I’ve still got a little bit to learn there!”

Hamilton’s problem became Charles Leclerc, who also made a good start and had been maintaining a watching brief during the opening laps. A tense duel ensued, but Leclerc got the job done on lap eight with the inside line at the first turn, which he used to push Hamilton subtly out wide and prevent him from fighting back into Turn 3.

Both drivers had a new problem, though, as Kimi Antonelli made a rapid recovery after a bad start from the front row dropped him to eighth. The start was doubly bad for the Italian thanks to contact with Isack Hadjar after a lock up, for which the stewards penalized him 10s. He got Hamilton at the back hairpin in much the same way Russell had done several laps earlier, and he pulled the same move on Leclerc just in time, pulling ahead as the safety car was called for Nico Hulkenberg’s stopped Audi car.

The safety car triggered almost everyone to change tires, but it forced Antonelli to serve his penalty, dropping him back to seventh. It freed Leclerc and Hamilton to complete the podium — Ferrari’s first in a grand prix or sprint since the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“I was managing quite a bit, but I’m pretty happy with the race,” Leclerc said. “The pace was quite strong. It’s good to see at least our race pace is more similar to the Mercedes than our qualifying pace. I’m pretty happy with the car today.”

Hamilton was less optimistic, pointing to Mercedes’s immense straight-line speed as unbeatable.

“Their speed on the straights is just a little bit too much at the moment,” he said. “I put up a good fight, but I killed my left tires, so I wasn’t able to hold onto the position.

“I was in the lead at one point, so to finish third is not the greatest, but I will try harder tomorrow.”

Lando Norris capitalized on Hamilton having to double-stack behind Leclerc to take third place behind the safety car but was ultimately no match for the Ferrari at the restart, leaving him fourth.

Antonelli finished fifth at the end of a busy recovery race. He had dropped to a net sixth after Oscar Piastri passed him at the safety car restart, but the stewards put the Australian under investigation for getting the move done before the finish line — before racing had officially got back underway — and so he handed the place back to avoid a penalty.

Several drivers opted against pitting during the safety car, taking the position gains and hoping to hold during the three laps of racing that ensued. The gamble paid off for Liam Lawson and Oliver Bearman, who finished seventh and eighth to take the final points of the sprint.

A bad start dropped Max Verstappen to 20th on the first lap, but he recovered to ninth ahead of Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly — who will see the stewards about an unsafe release — Carlos Sainz, and Gabriel Bortoleto, none of whom pitted during the safety car.

Franco Colapinto followed in 14th ahead of Isack Hadjar, Alex Albon, Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll, and Sergio Perez as the last of the finishers.

Hulkenberg was joined on the retirement list by Valtteri Botttas, whose Cadillac suffered a power problem, and Arvid Lindblad, who was spun around on the first lap and retired with technical issues.

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