Chinese Grand Prix: Mercedes was once again unstoppable and Colapinto scored his first point in Alpine

Mercedes once again demonstrated its power with the new Formula 1 regulations. After a brilliant performance in Australia, the German team returned to 1-2, now in the Chinese Grand Prix, but this time the positions were reversed and it had a historic record: Andrea Kimi Antonelli won his first Formula 1 victory

.

The Italian driver, who had surprised him with a record pole position on Saturday, dominated the race in Shanghai and led comfortably, followed by his teammate George Russell, while Lewis Hamilton completed the podium and celebrated his first result in the top three with Ferrari.

The race began with several surprises even before the start.

The McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were unable to start due to electrical problems, as were Alex Albon's Williams and Gabriel Bortoleto's Audi, leaving a grid reduced to 18 cars.

In the first few meters, Hamilton and Leclerc took advantage of a hesitant Mercedes start to take the lead, although the leadership changed rapidly. Antonelli regained the position soon after and, together with Russell, put the German team back at the forefront of the race

.

Further back, Alpine got off to a promising start. Pierre Gasly placed fifth and Franco Colapinto came in sixth after taking advantage of some incidents in the peloton, including the spinning of Isack Hadjar and Sergio “Checo” Pérez

.

The race changed with the appearance of the safety car after the abandonment of Lance Stroll. While most of the leaders entered the pits, Colapinto stayed on the track with hard tires and came to second place momentarily, although he then began to lose positions to cars with better pace

.

The Argentinian defended his place for several laps until tire wear forced him to stop. On his return to the track, he starred in an incident with Esteban Ocon, which ended up taking both cars out of line and resulted in a ten-second penalty for the French driver

.

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Despite the setback, Colapinto managed to stay in the race and, favored by the abandonment of Max Verstappen in the final stage, he climbed to tenth position to score his first point as an Alpine

driver.

At the front, Antonelli controlled the competition all the way to the checkered flag, despite a blockade in the last few laps that narrowed the gap a little. Russell finished second by more than five seconds, while Hamilton secured third place ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc

.

Behind them, Ollie Bearman (Haas), Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls), Isack Hadjar (Red Bull), Carlos Sainz (Williams) and Franco Colapinto (Alpine) completed the top ten.

Later, just 5 more cars were able to finish (Hülkenberg, Linblad, Bottas, Ocon and Pérez), adding up to a total of 7 abandonments between DNS (Albon, Bortoleto, Norris and Piastri) and DNF (Vertapen, Alonso and Stroll).

Leaderboard after China

1st - George Russell (Mercedes) - 51 Points 2nd -

Andra Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) - 47 points 3rd - Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - 34 points

4th - Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) - 33 points

5th -

Oliver Bearman (Haas) - 17 points 6th - Lando Norris (McLaren) - 15 points 7th -

PIERRE GASLY (Alpine) - 9 points 8th - Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - 8 points

9th - Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) - 8 points

10th - Arvid Limblad (Racing Bulls) - 4

points

11th -

Isaac Hadjar (Red Bull) - 4 points

12th - Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - 3 points 13th - Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) - 2 points