Category: Motor Sports

• Seven-time world champion opens account with Formula One team
• Oscar Piastri finishes second, Max Verstappen third in 100km race

Lewis Hamilton celebrated his first Formula One win for Ferrari after leading a Chinese Grand Prix sprint from start to finish in only his second race for the Italian team on Saturday.

The seven-time world champion, on pole position, managed his tyres superbly to take the chequered flag 6.889 seconds clear of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finishing third in the 100km race.

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Muttering in pit lane over how F1 team have found such a sweet spot between aerodynamics and tyre wear

One race into the new Formula One season and the sport has been transfixed by how smartly McLaren have emerged from the blocks. A quick car is a surprise to no one but what fascinated about Lando Norris’s and Oscar Piastri’s ride is that their single greatest advantage apparently lay not in the science of aerodynamics but rather in the tyres and the dark art of mechanical grip. In which algorithms and alchemy, McLaren appear to have struck gold.

Norris’s win at the season opener in Australia caught the eye, not only with how much pace they showed but in how they achieved it, and it has the other teams worried.

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• British driver to start alongside Verstappen on front row
• Lando Norris in sixth after mistakes during qualifying

Lewis Hamilton landed his first pole position as a Ferrari driver by taking top spot for Saturday’s sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix.

The 40-year-old, in only his second appearance for the Italian giants, saw off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by just 0.018sec in Shanghai to ensure he will start from the front for Saturday’s 19-lap dash to the chequered flag. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri qualified third with Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc fourth. George Russell took fifth for Mercedes, one place ahead of Lando Norris in the other McLaren.

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• McLaren superiority ‘bigger than Red Bull has ever had’
• Norris wants to stay calm after opening race win

George Russell has claimed that Lando Norris has the car to win every race this season and said McLaren’s advantage is even bigger than that which Red Bull enjoyed.

Norris cemented his status as the favourite to land his maiden world championship with a statement victory at last weekend’s rain-hit Australian Grand Prix.

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Eddie Jordan, the colourful former F1 team owner, has died at the age of 76. We take a look at his life in pictures

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• Irishman had revealed his cancer diagnosis in December
• Eddie Jordan gallery: looking back at his life in pictures

The former Formula One team owner Eddie Jordan has died aged 76, his family have announced. The Irishman revealed in December he had been diagnosed with bladder and prostate cancer which had spread to his spine and pelvis.

A statement from Jordan’s family read: “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Eddie Jordan OBE, the ex-Formula 1 team owner, TV pundit and entrepreneur. He passed away peacefully with family by his side in Cape Town in the early hours of 20 March 2025 at the age of 76, after battling with an aggressive form of prostate cancer for the past 12 months.

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Grand prix fans thronged into the heaving Albert Park with renewed zeal, abuzz at the prospects of local hero and title contender Oscar Piastri

As Formula One prepares to open a season the sport hopes will be a spectacular battle royale, it surely could not ask for a finer venue than Melbourne’s Albert Park to see things off in a suitably splendid fashion.

The true form for the year ahead has yet to be discerned from the opening day of practice in Australia. But with the cars fizzing with intent round the glorious circuit in the parkland in the heart of the city, it was a pleasure to welcome Australia back as the opening race of the season for the first time since the Covid pandemic brought proceedings to a desultory close here on the Friday before the race in 2020.

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Verstappen is under pressure from a revitalised Hamilton at Ferrari with McLaren’s Norris set to challenge from the off

Car MCL39 Engine Mercedes Principal Andrea Stella Debut Monaco 1966 GPs 970 Titles 9 Last season 1st. In position to build on securing the constructors’ championship in 2024, McLaren will be quick out of the blocks. The car was the standout in testing and confidence is high. Lessons were learned through questionable execution last year and they have two outstanding drivers who are both hungrily eyeing the team’s first drivers’ title since 2008. How they manage them may be key from the off.

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• Australian signs contract extension with driver’s title hopefuls
• F1 season begins with 23-year-old’s home grand prix in Melbourne

Australian star Oscar Piastri has secured a multi-year contract extension with Formula One champions McLaren ahead of the season start in Melbourne on Sunday. The 23-year-old, who was already under contract until 2026, has now locked in a long-term future with the British team.

Piastri finished fourth in the championship last year, claiming his first F1 victory in Hungary in his second season before winning again at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. With McLaren expected to carry over their constructors’-winning form into the new season, Piastri looks set to battle with team-mate Lando Norris – who was second last year behind Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen – for the 2025 world title.

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