Lap 33/56 – Piastri leads, Norris second
Piastri has a 2.5 second lead over his McLaren teammate.
More importantly, they now have a gap over 4 seconds from Russell in third place.
This opens up the chance for them to pit and get back out on new tyres.
Norris is asking his team to get Piastri to speed up so that Norris is not damaging his current set too much.
Lap 31/56 – Piastri leads, Norris second
McLaren reveal their tactics via the team radio.
It seems they are trying to use the slipsteam of Piastri to open up more of a gap between Norris and Russell.
You would only do that if you are planning another stop for both drivers so they can push a little harder towards the end of the race.
Lap 29/56 – Piastri leads, Norris second
It is always strange to see a damaged car outperforming a teammate but this is what Ferrari are witnessing with Leclerc.
The mini-race between the pair seems to be distracting them from the leaders.
Russell is in third spot and acting as a buffer between Ferrari and McLaren.
Lap 27/56 – Piastri leads, Norris second
Leclerc tells his team how the downnforce of the Mercedes on the corners is too good for him to close the gap.
Meanwhile, as for the rookie drivers, it is Bearman who leads that particular sub-race.
Antonelli has dropped off somewhat now.
View from SunSport’s Isabelle Barker in Shanghai
Lewis Hamilton showing he runs the show at Ferrari when the Italian team was toying over whether to swap the seven-time world champion who was in fifth with his teammate Charles Leclerc in sixth who was flying and clearly had better pace.
The British driver showed his sportsmanship when he got on the team radio saying “I’m struggling, I’m holding him up”. But he started to improve and was catching George Russell in fourth so told his race engineer “I’ll tell you when we stop”.
Hamilton finally obliged and let Charles Leclerc through, but was just making it clear he would choose when to do it on the team radio.
Lap 25/56 – Piastri leads, Norris second
A lot of drivers will be looking for a one stop race here.
Leclerc has DRS on Russell as he cuts the gap to leader Piastri.
He seemed frustrated with how long it took his team to get the order across for Hamilton to allow him through.
The Ferrari driver is going at an electric pace in Shanghai so far.
