F1 2026: Chinese Grand Prix Sprint Recap

George Russell sees off early Ferrari scare to win Chinese Grand Prix Sprint

Mercedes’ George Russell converted his Sprint pole into a win as the British driver won the Chinese Grand Prix 2026 Sprint despite having lost the lead of the race a couple of times to his former teammate, Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari showed some promising race pace but wasn’t able to get past the Silver Arrows with Leclerc and Hamilton finishing second and third in the Sprint while Kimi Antonelli had a bittersweet Sprint, losing places at the race starts and due to a time-penalty but showed impressive race pace. 

Russell was slow off the line as Lando Norris and Hamilton got incredible starts and Hamilton was right behind Russell instantly as he went around the outside of Antonelli and then on the second lap, after pressing Russell, Hamilton took the lead of the race going into turn 1 around his former teammate while a further back on the field, Antonelli hit Isack Hadjar. Russell and Hamilton were at it, giving each other nothing; both exchanged the lead in the opening couple of laps a couple of times.

Antonelli went around the inside of Piastri to take fifth place from the McLaren before Piastri retook the place back on lap five and the following lap at the top, Russell retook the lead of the race from Hamilton at turn 1, going around Hamilton at the hairpin. A lap later, Leclerc picked off Hamilton for P2 at turn 1 as Hamilton was beginning to lose some pace and spots on the grid. Hamilton and Leclerc kept pushing each other and as the two Ferraris battled on track, Russell ahead pulled away and the other Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli had made his way up to fourth place and was all over the back of Hamilton, under half a second behind. Antonelli got past Hamilton on lap 12 at turn 13 to move into P3 but with Antonelli having been handed a 10-second penalty, Hamilton hung on behind him. On lap 13, the race saw two retirements as Arvid Lindblad and Valtteri Bottas were asked by their respective teams to retire the car while 

On the track meanwhile, Antonelli breezed past Leclerc, a second before the Safety Car came out as Nico Hülkenberg’s Audi stopped on the track. The front runners dove into the pits and a double stack from Ferrari messed up Hamilton’s race, dropping him to fourth behind Norris while Antonelli, who was second on track when they came in for the pit stop, served his penalty and dropped to seventh place. The Safety Car came in on lap 16 with three laps left and Russell caught Leclerc off at the restart, with the Ferrari man suffering some wheelspin which allowed Russell to pull away. Antonelli had a poor restart as well as he was overtaken by the Haas of Oliver Bearman momentarily before he retook seventh place on the following lap. There was more overtaking going on the field as Hamilton stormed past Norris to retake third place from the reigning world champion while Oscar Piastri was asked by his team to give fifth position back to Antonelli after he was deemed to have made an overtake before crossing the line at the Safety Car restart. 

Russell eventually picked up a comfortable win at the front despite a late charge from Leclerc in the final couple of turns while Hamilton made it a double podium for Ferrari in the Sprint race as he was almost two seconds clear of Norris who finished fourth. Antonelli ended fifth despite serving a 10-second penalty and losing place at the restarts multiple times. Behind Antonelli, Oscar Piastri, Liam Lawson and Olliver Bearman rounded out the points at the Sprint in Shanghai. Russell’s win netted him eight points while the two Ferraris taking home seven and six points while the drivers behind them up to the eighth place finishing with five, four, three two and a single point. 

The grid will be back on the track soon again for the Chinese Grand Prix qualifying session in a couple of hours time.