Formula 1 recap: Liam Lawson finishes in the points at Chinese Grand Prix
All the action from the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai International Circuit.
Christopher Reive
Here's Alex Powell's report on how the race unfolded. That will do it for the blog.
We'll be back in a fortnight to bring you all the action from the Japanese Grand Prix. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy your Sunday night.
Hamilton enjoys Ferrari v Ferrari as much as the fans
Christopher Reive
Asked about racing against teammate Leclerc, Hamilton says he had a great time and one of the most enjoyable races he has had.
He also noted that it was a bit fitting that he got his first podium with Ferrari when Antonelli - who took the seat Hamilton vacated at Mercedes - got his first win.
More from the radio
Christopher Reive
Team principal Alan Permane jumps on to give Lawson some praise.
"Well done, mate. Impressive. That is right up there with your best. Really, really well done, mate."
Lawson was the top finishing Red Bull entry, ahead of Hadjar (Red Bull) in eighth, Lindblad (Racing Bulls) in 12th and Verstappen (Red Bull) who retired.
Lawson team radio
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Race engineer: "P7. Well done. We don't like safety cars but we score points anyway."
Lawson: "That's not what I expected, so very, very well done. I think, honestly, for what we had, the pace we had, that was everything we could do with the car."
Lewis Hamilton is on the podium
Christopher Reive
For the first time as a Ferrari driver, Hamilton will stand on the podium.
George Russell finished second.
Seventh for Liam Lawson
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Points in both races this weekend for the Kiwi
KIMI ANTONELLI WINS IN CHINA
Christopher Reive
From pole to the top of the podium, what a race from the young Italian.
Final lap
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Lawson remains seventh
Shaky moment from Antonelli
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A little scare as the race leader locks up. He's able to keep going, but that will see the gap close between he and Russell.
Antonelli is told by his race engineer to "just get this thing home."
Lap 52
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Five laps remaining in this one and I'd be surprised I'd there were any positional changes from here.
Lap 49
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Lawson extends the gap over Hadjar. The Kiwi now leads his former teammate by more than 2s.
Antonelli is flying
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No problems with racing out in front for the young Italian. He's pushed the gap out to almost 9s from his teammate Russell
Lawson into seventh
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Max Verstappen is retiring from the race with power issues. Lawson could be the top-placed Red Bull entry here.
Lawson maintaining
Christopher Reive
He continues to lead Hadjar by about 1s and that gap has been pretty consistent for the last few laps.
Out in front
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Russell has shaved about 1s off Antonelli's lead, but the latter is still ahead by 7.3s.
Lap 43
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Lawson continues to run in eighth as Lindblad pits for mediums.
Lindblad still hasn't pitted
Christopher Reive
The Racing Bulls driver is doing a fantastic job on tyres that are now 41 laps old. I imagine it's going to be a move late so they can try and pinch that last spot in the points
16 laps remaining
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Lawson is in eighth, but has Isack Hadjar's Red Bull on his tail.
Ferrari v Ferrari
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Leclerc and Hamilton continue to race each other for the last step on the podium.
10s penalty for Ocon
Christopher Reive
No surprises to see the Haas penalised for the collision with Colapinto.
Ocon is currently running in 13th, so that shouldn't impact the points.
Lawson team radio
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"20 laps remaining. Currently P8, we go to the end."
Let's see how these hard tyres hold up.
Lawson up to eighth
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Hulkenberg goes into the pits.
The Kiwi is now chasing Gasly, but is 8s back.
Fernando Alonso out
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That's now six cars in the garage.
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Colapinto and Ocon collide and there's debris on the track.
"Yeah, that was my fault," Ocon tells his team.
Lawson up to ninth
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This time it's thanks to a Colapinto pit stop.
A race for second
Christopher Reive
It would take some doing for Antonelli not to win this race. With 24 laps to go, the Mercedes driver leads by more than 8s.
Lawson up to 10th
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Esteban Ocon pits and Lawson moves up a spot.
Lap 30
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Lawson has not yet been able to close the gap on Hulkenberg, remaining more than 1s behind the Audi.
Russell moves into second
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Now let's see if the current championship leader can go catch his teammate.
Lawson team radio
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Lawson is given a race update. He's in P11, but there are three cars in front of him who are yet to make a pit stop.
Yellow flag
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Arvid Lindblad spins out, but he's able to keep going and the yellow flag is removed quickly.
Russell makes a move
Christopher Reive
Looks like Hamilton used his battery battling his teammate, and he's easy pickings for Russell's Mercedes.
And the Ferraris are racing each other
Christopher Reive
I do enjoy when teammates go racing. Leclerc looks to have the pace, but they're really going at each other here.
Comfortable for Kimi
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The young Mercedes driver leads by more than 4s from Ferrari duo Leclerc and Hamilton.
Lawson team radio
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Lawson complains of bad braking on that last lap.
Lawson chasing Hulkenberg
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The Audi is still yet to pit, though Lawsn is about 1.4s behind.
Lawson makes a move on Lindblad
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The Kiwi gets into 11th.
Lap 19
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With the two Mercedes and Ferraris leading the way, Colapinto is running fifth - holding everyone else up but doing a great job to stay ahead.
Five drivers are yet to pit
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Including Lindblad and Hulkenberg, the two cars ahead of Lawson.
No changes for Lawson
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He's now chasing Nico Hulkenberg though, after Verstappen picked off another one. Lawson is about a second back from the Audi.
Hamilton makes the move
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Valiant effort from Colapinto, but the Alpine is no match for the Ferrari.
Elsewhere, Mercedes' Russell is complaining of no grip.
Lap 15
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Colapinto is trying to hold off Hamilton for second, while Antonelli continues to get further ahead.
Lawson stays 12th
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It doesn't take long for the Kiwi to get by Alonso, who has dropped back quickly.
But Verstappen gets around Lawson, so it's no gain in positions.
And we are racing again
Christopher Reive
Kimi Antonelli leads, from Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon - did not expect to see that as a top three today.
Safety car coming in
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Look for Lawson to race Fernando Alonso, who is on older tyres.
Lap 12
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Still under the safety car, Lawson is running in 12th. He's getting his race engineer to run him through who is in front of him and what tyres they're on.
Everyone is on hard tyres.
Lawson team radio
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Lawson: "Has this hurt us badly?"
Race engineer: "It's not ideal, but we will recover. A lot of people had started on hard so we will race them until the end."
Lawson: "Did people box from hard to medium on this stop?"
Race engineer: "Negative, Liam. So we're still fighting a lot of cars."
Busy time in pit lane
Christopher Reive
The safety car triggers a run of pit stops; Antonelli, Russell, Hamilton, Leclerc, Gasly, Bearman, Verstappen, Sainz, Bottas and Hadjar all head in.
Lance Stroll is out
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The Aston Martin is parked up and that's a yellow flag.
Terrible timing for Lawson, who had just pulled out of pit lane.
Lindblad gets around Lawson
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Lawson heads into the pits on lap 10.
Lawson team radio
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Lawson: "I think we've got to box if we can."
"You can push, Liam. Push, push."
Lawson and Lindblad battling
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That seemed like it might happen, Lindblad is the faster car right now.
Christopher Reive
Lindblad is currently having to work to fend off Max Verstappen, who got off to a terrible start.
Six laps in
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Liam Lawson is running eighth after Haas' Esteban Ocon got around him. He's 1.2s back of Ocon, and 1.3s ahead of teammate Arvid Lindblad.
Cadillac collision
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Sergio Perez tried to make a move on his teammate Valtteri Bottas, but the two made contact.
Lawson team radio
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"Liam we need a bit more management in turn 13 exit."
Lawson responds by noting he's got a Haas on his tail - in a bit more colourful language than that.
Kimi Antonelli leads
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The Mercedes driver has taken the lead back from Lewis Hamilton, with George Russell and Charles Leclerc third and fourth.
In a surprising turn of events, both Alpines are the next best, running in fifth and sixth ahead of Liam Lawson.
Both McLarens are out
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Horrible weekend for fans of the Papaya Pals.
Hadjar spins out
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The Red Bull gets by Oliver Bearman's Haas but spins out.
Liam Lawson, after all of this, is in seventh. All go here in Shanghai
We're under way
Christopher Reive
What a hectic start.
One of the Red Bulls was really slow. Liam Lawson makes up a couple of spots immediately.
Alex Albon is out as well
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The Williams driver has had a terrible week, but is also out of his car watching the start of the race on TV.
Gabriel Bortoleto will not start the race
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The Audi driver was slated to start from pit lane, but he will not race at all today.
Tyres confirmed
Alex Powell
Lawson starts on mediums. Pretty even split between mediums and hards across the grid. The two Red Bulls and Valtteri Bottas are on softs.
Piastri in trouble?
Alex Powell
Looks like another issue for McLaren!
Oscar Piastri has just headed back to the garage. Will he be able start?
Pit lane starts
Christopher Reive
Lando Norris, Alex Albon and Gabriel Bortoleto will all start from pit lane, according to F1TV's coverage.
Gabriel Bortoleto also starting in pit lane?
Christopher Reive
Listening to the F1 TV pre-race show, it sounds like the Audi driver will be starting from the pit lane with Albon.
Lando Norris could also start from the pit lane.
Norris out
Alex Powell
Confirmed. Lando Norris will not start, and has been forced to retire from the grand prix with a mechanical issue.
Another pre-race blow for McLaren.
Alex Powell
Update on Norris. It looks like he won't be able to make it to the grid for the warm-up laps.
While his place in the grand prix hasn't been scratched, yet, it will mean Norris will have more fuel than needed if he's to go straight from the garage to the start line.
Huge 30 minutes coming up for McLaren.
McLaren issues?
Alex Powell
With as many cars out on track for their warm-up lap as possible, Lando Norris is still in the garage with what the team have described as an "electrical issue".
It'll be huge if he can't race for whatever reason, after Oscar Piastri crashed out in Melbourne last week.
Sprint race
Alex Powell
If it's any consolation for Liam Lawson, the Kiwi showed in yesterday's sprint race that he can overtake on this track.
Starting grid confirmed
Alex Powell
The first bit of news is that we've had a change to the starting grid.
For the second time in as many days, Alex Albon starts from pit lane.
The Williams had only qualified in 18th, but has made changes to his car under Parc Ferme rules. He did the same thing for yesterday's sprint race.
Kia ora!
Alex Powell
Good evening! And welcome to the Herald's live coverage of the Chinese Grand Prix.
We're about an hour away from lights out, so we'll bring you everything through the build-up.
Christopher Reive
Qualifying report by Alex Powell
Liam Lawson has endured a mixed day at Formula One’s Chinese Grand Prix, and will start Sunday’s race 14th on the grid.
While the Kiwi driver was exceptional to take seventh in the 19-lap sprint race earlier on Saturday, a yellow flag in qualifying robbed Lawson of any chance to better his time, and saw him eliminated by 0.413s in the second session (Q2).
“F*** me,” Lawson was heard telling race engineer Alexandre Iliopoulos, after he was forced to settle for an early exit a week after qualifying eighth for the Australian Grand Prix.
“It would have been very close to Q3,” Lawson said of his abandoned lap.
“It’s a shame, we were on quite a nice lap. We had a messy session stringing it together, and then at the end, the last lap was really nice. It’s a shame.”
At the very least, Lawson outqualified Racing Bulls rookie teammate Arvid Lindblad for the third time out of three attempts this season, with the 19-year-old to start 15th in his second full-length race.
However, by his own admission, Lawson does face a tough task in the grand prix, after using a set of hard tyres in the sprint, and therefore leaving himself short on Sunday.
Lawson, though, can take solace from his performance in the sprint, with no driver making more overtakes over the course of the 19 laps than the Kiwi’s six.
At the front of the grid, Mercedes continued their dominance - albeit with a role reversal for their drivers.
Kimi Antonelli, 18, took pole position to become the youngest polesitter in history, with a lap of 1m 32.064s.
Teammate and sprint winner George Russell was 0.222s back in second, having only been able to post one lap in Q3 after suffering issues on his first lap.
Sir Lewis Hamilton starts third, 0.351s back from Antonelli, while Ferrari locked out the second row with Charles Leclerc in fourth.
World champion Lando Norris starts sixth, outqualified by teammate Oscar Piastri in fifth, while four-time champion Max Verstappen could only manage eighth.
Starting on a set of medium tyres, Lawson’s first effort of 1m 34.731s saw him shoot to the top of the leaderboard, albeit with just a handful of drivers having completed their opening laps.
As he headed back to the garage, Lawson had fallen to ninth, but with a 1.607s buffer between elimination. By the time he returned to the track in Q1, Lawson had dropped to 12th, with just 0.621s up his sleeve.
And while Lawson improved his time again to 1m 34.139s, the Kiwi still had a nervous wait to get into Q2, sneaking in as the 16th fastest, with 0.178s to spare.
Into the second session of qualifying for the second time this weekend, Lawson was the final driver on track, and put in a first effort of 1m 33.765s, only enough for 14th and 0.841s short of reaching Q3.
With one chance and just over three minutes remaining in the session, Lawson emerged from the Racing Bulls garage.
And while the Kiwi was on course to at the very least improve, Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto left the track at turn 16, and left himself in the gravel to end the day of more than one driver, including both Racing Bulls.
The Chinese Grand Prix begins at 8pm on Sunday (NZT).
Chinese Grand Prix starting grid
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.