Russell survives Ferrari attack to win China Sprint

George Russell fended off both Ferrari’s of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton and survived a late Safety Car to win the first Sprint Race of the year.

Rhonan Colquhoun 10:35am 14th March 2026

Russell, who made a decent getaway from Pole Position, was hounded by the fast-starting Ferrari’s with Hamilton leading the attack. Catching Russell unaware, the Ferrari driver nipped past with the duo swapping positions for the next several laps.

With Hamilton’s front tyres starting to grain, Russell swept past and started to pull a gap whilst Leclerc and Hamilton fought before the Safety Car was deployed for Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg who had stopped on track.

With everyone’s tyres starting to deteriorate, the majority of the field pitted and moved onto the Soft tyre. With Ferrari and McLaren having to double-stack, Hamilton and Oscar Piastri notably lost out while the likes of Racing Bull’s Liam Lawson and Haas’s Oliver Bearman who stayed out on their original tyres.

Russell judged the restart well while Leclerc bodged down with wheelspin exiting the penultimate corner which allowed the Mercedes driver to romp home.

Leclerc claimed second whilst Hamilton fought back-past McLaren’s Lando Norris to retake his position within the top three.

Norris settled for fourth and was followed home by Mercedes Kimi Antonelli and Piastri whilst Lawson and Bearman managed to stay within the top eight for the remaining points.

Antonelli, who started the race on the front-row alongside team-mate Russell, suffered another horrible start and dropped down the order. Eager to recover lost ground, the Italian ran wide into Turn 6 and clattered into the side of Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar which resulted in bargeboard damage for the Frenchman and a ten second time penalty for the Mercedes driver.

Clawing his way back into the race, Antonelli overtook both McLarens with some nice overtakes to run behind both Ferrari’s and Russell before the Safety Car.

Under the Safety Car, Antonelli served his time penalty and re-joined in seventh with Piastri right behind however, on the race restart, the McLaren driver was too eager to get going and overtook the Mercedes driver before the designated line and was ordered to give the position back to avoid any penalty.

Max Verstappen claimed ninth after fighting back through the field after a poor start which saw the Dutchman drop from eighth to the rear of the pack after the opening lap.

Racing Bull’s Arvid Lindblad was spun round on the opening lap and was told later on to retire the car whilst Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas also retired from the race due to a loss of power.

The teams and drivers now don’t have long before qualifying which will set the grid for Sunday’s main race.