Antonelli wins Chinese GP as McLarens fail to start

And the biggest crowd at the Shanghai International Circuit since the first race in 2004 lapped it up And it was the first for an Italian since Giancarlo Fisichella's Malaysian GP victory in 2006 Antonelli lost the lead at the start as the Ferrari drivers both made their expected fast getaways. Hamilton took the lead from third on the grid and Leclerc moved into third ahead of Russell, and narrowly missed out on passing Antonelli for second through the long complex of corners that starts the lap. "The start is still our weak point.

I didn't go with a great confidence because my two previous starts were really bad," said Antonelli. "Obviously I covered a little bit too much on the inside and left too much space on the outside. So I probably need to review that.

" Antonelli reclaimed the lead down the back straight on lap two, while Russell took a little longer to move into second place, passing Leclerc on lap three and Hamilton on lap four. The two Mercedes ran together at the front until a safety car was triggered by the retirement of Lance Stroll's Aston Martin, which stopped in the run-off area at Turn Two. Russell's chances of victory unravelled in the next few laps.

The four leading cars all stopped for fresh tyres together, but while Antonelli retained the lead, Russell lost positions to the Alpine of Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon's Haas, who had not stopped. Russell then had a sticky restart. His tyres were too cold, and he had a series of snaps through the final corners before the restart and the first corners of the lap and he lost positions to both Hamilton and Leclerc.