Takeaways from the 2026 Chinese GP - Kimi Antonelli’s maiden Grand Prix win, Lewis Hamilton’s first podium in red and a double McLaren DNS

Kimi Antonelli claimed his maiden Formula 1 victory after winning the Chinese Grand Prix as Mercedes showed blistering pace yet again.

Here, Sports News Blitz writer Mosaddek Abu discusses the takeaways from the second race of the 2026 F1 season. 

Kimi Anotnelli claims maiden F1 race win

Andrea Kimi Antonelli qualified on pole position, becoming the youngest pole sitter in F1 history, and then, on Sunday, Kimi Antonelli became the second-youngest Grand Prix winner. 

The win comes after one season in F1, which was a huge task replacing a 7x world champion, Lewis Hamilton, who moved to Ferrari.

He started well off the line on Sunday's race despite conceding the lead to Hamilton, but manoeuvred an excellent overtake to retake it over the man he replaced at Mercedes. 

He made a slight mistake with four laps to go, as he locked up at the hairpin, but it was nothing but a scare that only lost him a couple of seconds, as he had it all under control until he crossed the line to take the chequered flag on lap 56. 

It was a moment to savour for the young Italian, repaying the faith believed in him by Totto Wolff, who was aware of his potential when Antonelli was a junior, alongside Mercedes’ Junior Programme leader, Gwen Largue. 

He had shown his potential last season with a sprint pole in Miami, and although he had a blip, his team showed patience, and he has started to mature and understand the engineering of his car.

He became the first Italian in 20 years to win a Grand Prix, in convincing fashion too.

So who knows? Maybe we are in for an intra-team title fight, because this isn’t a one-and-done for the young Italian.

Ferrari drivers deliver a thriller

It is great to see a competitive Ferrari, and neither Charles Leclerc nor Hamilton was going to let the other take a final podium position. 

George Russell was behind both of them, which allowed Antonelli to open up his gap by five seconds. 

After the safety car restart, Hamilton was in front of a train of cars that had Leclerc and Russell right behind him.

It was on Lap 23, though, that Leclerc made a late move into Turn 14 at the end of the back straight, and the battle continued for the next 15 laps, with both drivers giving it everything and making any overtake difficult. 

The battle continued for the rest of the race, with Leclerc on team radio saying, “This is fun.”

By Lap 27, Russell passed both Ferraris, who were left scrapping with one another for third. 

Leclerc and Hamilton continued their fight for another good chunk of the race until Leclerc locked up, and Hamilton would ease away shortly after - a fun battle, and it looks like there will be plenty more to come as the season goes on.

Maybe a question to ask is: should Ferrari have considered team orders, allowing one of them to catch up to Antonelli and the other to hold off Russell?

They aren’t far off the silver arrows in terms of race pace, with Russell even stating over team radio that Ferrari were fast in the right areas.

Only two races into the season, so maybe they don’t want to make any decisions right away. But with two quick drivers, with a similar car, you are going to see more of an intra-team battle.

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Oliver Bearman continues to shine

After an impressive start to the season in Melbourne, where he finished P7, Oliver Bearman has followed up with an incredible P5 finish in China. 

He avoided any possible collisions on the opening lap and just ran his race, making his way through the midfield, with a few battles with the likes of Pierre Gasly in the Alpine. 

Bearman continues to impress and improve on his 2025 season. His P5 finish in China has put Haas P4 in the Constructors’ standings ahead of Red Bull and just behind McLaren. 

They are seriously looking like a strong contender to be one of the top teams in the midfield battle, and Bearman, to his credit, has added to that case, given that he has scored all 17 points for Hass inside two races. 

All the while adding pressure to his team-mate Esteban Occon, who was within the points at one point in this race, but a driver error on his part saw him collide with the Alpine of Franco Colpainto. 

Bearman is P5 in the drivers’ championship ahead of both McLaren and Red Bull drivers following great back-to-back weekends. 

Disaster weekend for Red Bull and McLaren

This was a weekend to forget for Red Bull and McLaren.

The reigning constructors' champions had to retire both of their cars before the lights went out. McLaren later confirmed that two separate power unit-related electrical faults occurred in their cars.

The last time McLaren had a DNS (did not start) was with team founder Bruce McLaren, in 1969 in Mexico and the USA. 

Whilst Saturday Qualifying went well for them, with P5 and P6, Sunday would prove a forgettable day. 

Oscar Piastri still hasn’t completed a Grand Prix lap in 2026, let alone even started one.

Under these new regulations, McLaren anticipated these issues, but for now, they just add to their current pain. 

The same goes for Red Bull, whose pace this weekend in China was on a par with that of the midfield. Max Verstappen didn’t get the greatest start off the line, dropping back to 16th. 

Meanwhile, Isack Hadjar had a spin on Lap 1 and slumped down many places, too, although he did, however, finish in the points. 

Verstappen made a great recovery, getting back into the midfield and as far as sixth place, before he started to slow down due to a loss of power, traced to an ERS coolant failure leading to his retirement. 

Teething issues were to be expected with Red Bull building their own powertrain alongside Ford, as they still work it out in the early stages of the season. 

However, it won’t take away the disappointment Verstappen has had recently, and it doesn’t look like there is an easy fix, as Red Bull are now behind McLaren and in a midfield battle with the likes of Haas and Alpine - not the start the 4x WDC and Red Bull were hoping for in 2026.

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Alpine has an impressive bounce-back weekend

Alpine had one of their worst seasons in 2025, finishing at the back of the grid for most of the season and facing a leadership and organisational structure mess, including a switch of team principals. 

They were alright in Australia, with Pierre Gasly finishing 10th and Franco Colapinto finishing 14th.

Still, even with getting in a new power unit, with them now running with Mercedes power, it didn’t look like an overall improvement.

A weekend later, though, both cars were competitive in qualifying and were right in the mix in the Grand Prix, too.

Colapinto was at one point in the top four; it didn’t last, but you could see the improvement in how far up the grid they were.

Gasly was right in the mix with Bearman, and Colapinto could have finished within the top eight, had he not been bumped by Occon.

The 30-year-old Frenchman finished in sixth behind the Haas of Ollie Bearman and ahead of the Racing Bull of Liam Lawson, whilst Colapinto finished in 10th. 

With better results compared to last weekend and 2025 overall, showcased in China, Alpine are well in the midfield battle. 

They are a team to watch this season.

Haas, Alpine, Audi, and Racing Bulls are all looking strong too, but I think, for now, Haas and Alpine are the best of the midfield teams.

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