Oscar Piastri beat team-mate Lando Norris as McLaren sealed a dominant one-two at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Pole-sitter Piastri never looked like relinquishing the win, the third of his F1 career, and made the perfect response after spinning last weekend at his home event in Melbourne.
Norris was given a scare in the closing laps due to a brake problem but held onto second from Russell, who made it back-to-back podiums to start the season in third.
Max Verstappen overtook Charles Leclerc for fourth in a great battle in the latter stages of the Grand Prix to limit the damage and is eight points behind Norris in the F1 Driversâ Championship.
Lewis Hamilton finished in a lonely sixth as he was unable to make the two-stop race work compared to the other front-runners on a one-stop.
Having won Saturdayâs Sprint, Hamilton was expected to contend for the top spots but rarely showed great pace and was asked to let Leclerc through early in the race
The Ferrari duo made contact on the opening lap and Leclerc damaged his front wing but it did not affect his pace.
Esteban Ocon scored his first points for Haas in seventh, ahead of Mercedesâ Kimi Antonelli and Williamsâ Alex Albon in ninth.
British teenager Oliver Bearman impressively charged through the field in the second half of the race on an alternative strategy to take the final point in 10th.
Piastri cruises to victory as Norris overcomes brake issues
Aside from the pit stop phase, Piastri led every lap of the Chinese Grand Prix and showed why he is a title contender this year.
He helped team-mate Norris by squeezing Russell down to Turn 1, which allowed Norris to sweep around the outside and move into second place with everyone aware of the importance of track position in Shanghai.
Norris was undercut by Russell though during the first, and only, pit stops for the leaders but the McLaren driver quickly got back into second place with a move down the inside into the first corner.
At one point, Norris was making inroads into his five-second deficit to Piastri before he was encouraged to manage his tyres so never got within two seconds of the Australian.
In the final six laps, Norris told the team he was suffering from a âlong pedalâ due to a brake issue so he backed off but had enough of a margin to fend off Russell by 1.3 seconds.
Reigning world champion Verstappen maximised the performance of his car again in fourth when it looked like he was going to be sixth.
After Hamilton decided to pit for a second time, Verstappen moved up to fifth and caught Leclerc before overtaking him with a stunning move around the outside at Turn 3.
Red Bull and Ferrari will be concerned by McLarenâs pace after finishing over 15 seconds behind race-winner Piastri on a track that traditionally demonstrates the best car aerodynamically.
McLarenâs one-two puts them 25 points ahead of Mercedes in the Constructorsâ Championship ahead of Suzuka in two weeksâ time.
Hamilton and Leclerc collide but it makes no difference
Ferrariâs pace in the Sprint did not translate into Sundayâs 56-lap race but they almost had bigger issues when Leclerc touched Hamiltonâs rear tyre at the opening corners.
Leclerc was side by side with Verstappen and said he âdid not expectâ Hamilton to move across in front of him but said it was not his team-mateâs fault.
The Monegasque driver suffered front wing damage, with Ferrari saying he lost â20 to 30 pointsâ of downforce which is around 0.2 to 0.3s per lap.
However, Leclerc was faster than Hamilton and the latter was asked to let his team-mate through, doing so after the first pit stops.
Hamilton was the only driver in the top 10 to pit twice and was unable to make the strategy work as he crossed the line in sixth.
Elsewhere, it was a largely incident-free race as Haasâ Bearman made the alternative hard-medium strategy work with some great overtakes on his way to 10th.
Red Bullâs Liam Lawson showed little pace down in 15th and rookie Jack Doohan was given the only penalty of the race for forcing Isack Hadjar off the track on his way to 16th.
Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda were set to score points but Racing Bullâs two-stop strategy put them both in the pack and they could not come back through the field.
Aston Martinâs Fernando Alonso was the only retiree due to a brake problem.
What the top three said
Oscar Piastri, McLaren â 1st: âItâs been an incredible weekend from start to finish. The carâs been pretty mega the whole time. I think today was a bit of a surprise with how differently the tyres behaved.
âIâm just so proud of the whole weekend. This is what I feel like I deserved from last week. The team did a mega job with the one-two. Iâm very happy.
âOn the medium it was still a bit tricky but much better than yesterday, and then the hard was a much better tyre than everyone expected, or certainly than we expected.
âTo go all the way to the end like that was a bit of a surprise, but a happy surprise.â
Lando Norris, McLaren â 2nd: âA few fun moments. The start, I was hoping for exactly that, so Turn 1 went to plan. Then George got me on the pit stops. I was a little bit nervous but our pace was a lot better in the second stint.
So a tough race just with the management. I donât think many people expected a one-stop today so it was good and Oscar drove well, he was quick the whole race.
âTried to get close but in the end just couldnât. He deserved the win and drove very well all weekend. Iâm happy with second, itâs good points and great points for us as a team with a one-two. Just how we wanted the race to go.â
George Russell, Mercedes â 3rd: âReally pleased with the P3. We knew McLaren were a smidge quicker than us, a few crucial points, but well done to those two.
âI felt it from quite early on that a one-stop could be possible and it turned out it was slightly easier than we probably all anticipated.
But, nevertheless, the car has been great this weekend and probably one of my best weekends in Formula 1 in terms of performance, so really pleased with that.â
Formula 1 heads to the iconic Suzuka Circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix on April 4-6, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW â No contract, cancel anytime
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