Formula One: Oscar Piastri untouchable in Shanghai as McLaren claims dominant one-two

Australia’s Oscar Piastri has backed up his maiden pole with a superb victory at the Chinese Grand Prix to announce himself as a serious World Championship contender on Sunday.

After his home Grand Prix hopes were dashed in a spin last weekend in Melbourne, Piastri barely put a foot wrong in China holding off a fast-starting Mercedes in George Russell off the line to claim his third F1 win.

It adds to his triumphs in Hungary and Azerbaijan last year in what proved to be a breakout season for the 23-year-old.

Piastri only lost the lead when cycling through the pit-stops as he finished almost 10 seconds clear of his teammate Lando Norris who was struggling with failing breaks in the final laps.

Together they completed a McLaren one-two with Geroge Russell completing the podium in third.

“It’s been an incredible weekend, the car has been pretty mega. Today was a surprise, how differently the tyres behaved. This feels like what I deserved from last week,” Piastri said post-race.

“Very, very happy just, yeah, very happy. The hard was a much better tyre than everyone expected, so to go all the way to the end was a bit of a surprise, but a happy surprise.”

Piastri’s fellow Australian Jack Doohan came in 17th after being unable to finish in his first home GP last Sunday.

He was 14th, but then was slapped with a 10-second penalty with only a few laps to go.

With AAP