F1 Chinese GP sprint race and qualifying as it happened

"Mega job, it is amazing, a big thank you for the team for us to be fighting Mercedes at the front. It was a close battle at beginning, their speed on the straight is a bit too much at the moment, I put up a good fight but killed my front tyre.

On his affinity with the new regs: "It is just a much better car, much better design and I have been part of developing it. So I much happier in it. I was in the lead at one point and I finished third, so not the greatest. I will try harder tomorrow."

Russell ahead of GP qualifying: "I hope we can bring more, yesterday was a great day. Ferrari seem to be offset in qualifying but really close to us in race trim, so we probably need to find an improvement for the race."

McLaren pushing to the maximum but it's only enough for fourth and sixth.

Top job by Lawson to score from 13th on the grid after a savvy hard tyre choice

Aaaaaand breathe...

Plenty of action, if occasionally hard to follow with the pendulous boost swings between the drivers.

To recap, Russell and Hamilton duke it out for the lead during the early stages with multiple changes of position before the Mercedes gets the break.

Leclerc quickly pounces on Hamilton and gives chase, but despite getting a second chance with a late safety car, can't wrest the lead from his rival.

Antonelli goes from second to seventh at the start, lands a ten-second penalty, fights back to second, takes penalty during pit-stop to drop back to eighth before recovering to fifth.

Verstappen is running out of time to get into the points, but he is up to ninth coming into the final lap.

It's not beyond him, Bearman +1.5s ahead is struggling on old tyres

Piastri is told to hand fifth place to Antonelli after apparently overtaking before the finish line on the restart

Good job Antonelli cleared Lawson and Bearman when the call came.

Piastri complies, Antonelli up to fifth

Hamilton saves his boost to blast past Norris for third place on the run towards Turn 1

Ferrari back to second and third

Antonelli overtakes Lawson for sixth

Piastri is making progress, dispatching of Antonelli for seventh at Turn 1, before getting by Bearman and Lawson before the lap is over

Piastri up to fifth, Antonelli gets Bearman for seventh

From Audi:

"Nico Hulkenberg suffered a technical failure during today's Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix. The team will investigate the issue once the No.27 car is back in the garage."

Leclerc fluffs the getaway with wheelspin out of the hairpin, giving Russell a nice running restart

Three lap sprint incoming as the safety car prepares to come in...

Russell leads Leclerc, Norris, Hamilton and Lawson in close company

Squeaky bum time as Sainz fails to slow sufficiently as the double waved yellows come out and he is forced to dive out of the way on locked brakes into Turn 1 to avoid Ocon.

Ocon - clearly looking in his mirrors - gets straight on the radio

It should be noted that Lawson - who is on hard tyres - and Bearman on the mediums stayed out on track, so they will be fighting for their lives to keep the likes of Antonelli and Piastri behind them at the restart

We won't have many laps though...

Hamilton queuing behind Leclerc has dropped him behind Norris

The safety car-pit sequence has also hampered Piastri, who was forced to queue behind Norris before taking his tyre change

He slips to eighth, just behind Antonelli - Lawson and Bearman rise to fifth and sixth

1. Russell
2. Leclerc
3. Norris
4. Hamilton
5. Lawson
6. Bearman
7. Antonelli
8. Piastri

Antonelli takes his 10secs penalty in the pit-stop, which drops him to seventh place.

And just like that, we now have our second AND third DNF - Bottas pitting, Hulkenberg stopped on track

Yellow flags

Lindblad becomes the first DNF of the race as he enters the pit lane to retire

The Briton suffered a spin at Turn 11 on lap one and had been running at the back

Antonelli picks off Hamilton down the back straight and retains enough boost in reserve to resist the Briton on the ensuing home straight

1. Russell
2. Leclerc
3. Antonelli
4. Hamilton
5. Norris
6. Piastri
7. Lawson
8. Bearman

Further back, the final two points paying positions belong to Lawson and Bearman.

Credit to Lawson, he started 13th and took a punt on hard tyres, and he has simply picked his way up the order into the points.

Bearman holds a decent lead of Hadjar, whose softs will likely be suffering about now

Interestingly, Verstappen is still wedged in 13th place, which is where he has been for much of this race.

The Dutchman failed to get off the line well from eighth place on the grid, but having been dumped well outside the points, hasn't made any progress on Bortoleto in front of him