The weekend of the Chinese Grand Prix saw the first Sprint Race of the Formula One season and it did not disappoint. The Sprint was characterized by a lot of track action and thrilling overtakes and on track battles between drivers. 

Some drivers had a fortunate start while others were left with the scraps. One of those drivers was Kimi Antonelli as he did not have a good start off the line and fell from his starting grid position of second to eighth. His teammate, George Russell, had a better start than him but was overtaken in turn one by former teammate Lewis Hamilton who is now in the scarlet Ferrari.

Also at the start Isack Hadjar faced damage from Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes was heading straight on to the RedBull and Hadjar suffered damage from the collision leading to a race in the midfield for the newest RedBull driver. 

A recurring event throughout the Sprint was the back and forth overtakes between drivers, which has been made more common because of the new battery regulations. When Russell and Hamilton were fighting for first the two switched between first and second many times depending on which battery was fuller.

On the front end of the Sprint Russell had a huge battery overtake on the second straight coming into lap four. At turn two of lap four Hamilton overtook to regain his position. 

There were battery trade-off battles between Antonelli and Piastri throughout the opening laps of the race as well as between the two Ferrari drivers in the middle laps of the Sprint. The two prancing horses were very close to each other especially in the first five turns of lap nine.

By lap eleven George Russell had built up a four second gap in the front of the field which quickly became shortened when a Safety Car was deployed and the field scrunched up, tightening up the times.

The Safety Car was caused by Nico Hulkenberg’s Audi having engine issues. Hulkenberg pulled off of turn one and the car was lifted and transported back to the paddock. 

The Safety Car brought a lot of drivers into the pits with the top three front running teams all choosing to complete double stacked pit stops. Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren all called both of their drivers into the pits at the same time, servicing one after the other. At this time Kimi Antonelli served his 10 second penalty after Russell put on a fresh set of tyres.

Every driver still running eventually pitted under the Safety Car except the group just outside of the points that consisted of Liam Lawson, Ollie Bearman, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz, Gabriel Bortoleto and Fernando Alonso. 

Under the Safety Car Carlos Sainz quickly approached the back of Esteban Ocon’s Haas and went off the track going into turn one. The incident did not institute any damage to either driver but Ocon did report the narrowly avoided collision over the radio.

The Safety Car went in at the end of lap sixteen and lap seventeen was the lap to see the green flag. Overtaking was enabled on lap seventeen as well, which was immediately put to use by Max Verstappen who had an overtaking push from lap eighteen to the final lap.

Kimi Antonelli was given a 10 second penalty for the previously mentioned collision with Isack Hadjar which he served when called into the pits at the start of the Safety Car. Sergio Perez also faced a penalty, his only being 5 seconds for a Safety Car infringement. 

Oscar Piastri was reported and investigated for overtaking just before the Safety Car officially ended but no penalty came from the investigation.

George Russell took first place in the sprint and was accompanied by both Ferrari drivers on the podium. Charles Leclerc came in second just 0.6 seconds behind Russell after starting sixth on the grid. Lewis Hamilton rounded out the podium in third and had positive things to say about the new car him and Leclerc helped develop.

Behind Hamilton followed Lando Norris, Kimi Antonelli, Oscar Piastri, Liam Lawson, and Ollie Bearman to claim the rest of the points. 

Drivers Arvid Lindblad, Valtteri Bottas, and Nico Hulkenberg all did not finish the race, shortening the running field to nineteen drivers.