Oscar Piastri raised the stakes in his championship battle with Lando Norris by securing the first pole position of his career at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Norris won last weekend’s opening round in Australia with Piastri only ninth after he slipped off the road in the rain when narrowly trailing his McLaren team-mate.
But at the second round of the season in Shanghai, Piastri pulled out all the stops to see off George Russell of Mercedes by just 0.082 seconds with Norris having to settle for third, more than a tenth adrift of the Australian.
Max Verstappen took fourth spot, one place ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who landed his first win as a Ferrari driver in the earlier sprint race. Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc starts in sixth. The race on Sunday, round two of the 2025 season, starts at 7am (GMT).
F1 driver standings after Chinese Grand Prix
1. Lando Norris – 44 points
2. Max Verstappen – 36 points
3. George Russell – 35 points
4. Oscar Piastri – 34 points
5. Charles Leclerc – 18 points
6. Kimi Antonelli – 18 points
7. Lewis Hamilton – 17 points
8. Alex Albon – 12 points
9. Lance Stroll – 8 points
10. Nico Hulkenberg – 6 points
11. Esteban Ocon – 6 points
12. Yuki Tsunoda – 3 points
13. Ollie Bearman – 1 point
14. Pierre Gasly – 0 points
