2026 Chinese Grand Prix Sprint Review

Linus O'Howell
1 day ago
3 min read

Russell Wins First Sprint of 2026

Despite a strong initial charge from Ferrari, it was George Russell who held his nerve to win the first Sprint of 2026! Ferrari rounded out the Podium, with Charles Leclerc heading Lewis Hamilton!

Plenty of Overtakes

Whilst George Russell got off the line well, the same could not be said for Andrea Kimi Antonelli as he dropped all the way down to P7 (for the second-straight weekend)! Things then got worse for Kimi Antonelli as he collided with Isack Hadjar, resulting in the Italian receiving a 10-second time penalty! Lewis Hamilton then caught George Russell off guard to take the lead on the opening lap, and this resulted in laps of battling, with the lead switching on multiple occasions! Max Verstappen wasn’t having a good time at all, with a torrid start dropping him all the way down to the back of the pack, whilst Hadjar was starting to drop due to both damage and the fact that he decided to start on a set of soft tyres! Lewis and Charles Leclerc then got close on multiple occasions, narrowly avoiding making contact! The Medium tyres were massively graining in this Race, with both Ferraris struggling as Antonelli rose back up into P2 before a Safety Car was deployed after Nico Hulkenberg’s Audi came to a stop! This allowed all of the top 6 drivers to pit for fresh rubber, with Kimi Antonelli dropping back down to 7th after serving his penalty!

When the Sprint got back underway with just 3 laps to go, a lack of grip for Charles Leclerc cost him a shot at challenging George Russell for the win, whilst a mistake from Kimi Antonelli allowed Oscar Piastri through! However, Piastri was told to give the place back due to overtaking before the start/finish line, and personally, I don’t like this rule at all! Anyway, Lewis Hamilton was able to re-overtake Lando Norris to take the final Podium spot, whilst Liam Lawson and Oliver Bearman held their nerve to keep Max Verstappen out of the points!

The Highs and Lows of the Sprint

I’ve given out two 10’s for today’s Sprint, and the first one is obviously for George Russell! Like I said yesterday, George looks faultless right now, and that’s allowing him to lose the lead on the opening lap as it doesn’t seem to affect the end result! The other driver I’ve given out maximum points to is Liam Lawson, and wow, what a decision by Racing Bulls to start on the Hard’s! Fair play to Liam, P13 to P7 is impressive! Both Ferraris had good days to end up on the Sprint Podium, whilst congrats to Oliver Bearman on scoring another point!

On the other end of the spectrum, I haven’t given out a single 1 for the first Sprint Race of 2026, but I will say that Arvid Lindblad didn’t have a good day, with both a spin and an early retirement! However, I still don’t know why Arvid spun, so I won’t be insanely harsh on him! Alex Albon was also disappointing in comparison to his teammate, whilst Aston Martin and Cadillac are just slow!