Fruitful outing for papaya orange of McLaren while Ferrari see red

This was a weekend that began with red and ended with red, albeit of an altogether different shade, but it was the orange in between that painted the most vivid portrait of the Formula One world championship race thus far.

- David Tremayne

The sprint race on March 22 at the resurfaced and super-smooth Shanghai International Circuit brought the result we had all hoped to see in Melbourne the previous week, as Lewis Hamilton took his first pole position in a Ferrari, and charged to a dominant victory over Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen.

Come qualifying for the big race, however, it was the papaya orange of McLaren that came to the fore as Piastri narrowly fended off the late silver flash of George Russell's Mercedes, with points leader Lando Norris rebounding from an off-form eighth in the sprint to third in a McLaren that is very quick but also quirky on its limit.

As Piastri dominated the Chinese Grand Prix, losing the lead only briefly to Williams' birthday boy Alex Albon during their single pit stops, Norris' form wavered.

He beat Russell to second on the opening lap, and at times was keeping his teammate very much on his toes, but he had to fight back past Russell after losing out to the undercut when he changed from medium-compound tyres to the untried hards.

The latter were so durable that those who opted boldly for one-stop strategies filled the top-five slots.