A first-time race winner, a glut of catastrophic unreliability and plenty of back and forth wheel-to-wheel action means there's a lot to unpick in our selection of the stars and flops from F1's second race of 2026.

Loser: McLaren (Double DNS) 

McLaren didn’t look like it had the pace to get in among the Mercedes/Ferrari battle at the front before the race, but we never found out because of its disastrous failure to start with either car.

It appears two different electrical issues on the power units were to blame (and weren’t linked) and it was just a horrible coincidence that they occurred to both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in a short space of time.

McLaren’s first order problem is the sizeable deficit it faces to Mercedes and Ferrari - something it puts down to an “underdeveloped” chassis more than a power unit knowledge deficit - but it also needs to do a better job of banking points to keep itself in the fight should it eventually turn its car around. - Josh Suttill 

Winner: Lewis Hamilton (3rd)

An obvious choice, considering this was his first grand prix podium finish for Ferrari, but it was a winning performance to get there when you consider he led the first lap, made a real nuisance of himself behind Kimi Antonelli after the safety car and got the better of Charles Leclerc in their intra-team battle.

Probably Hamilton's best all-around weekend since he joined Ferrari. - Ben Anderson

Loser: Max Verstappen (DNF)

It’s been a horrible weekend for Red Bull, and Verstappen in particular.

The car lacked grip throughout, the start was dreadful, the soft tyre didn’t work for that opening stint, and even once things picked up a bit on the hard tyre Verstappen then got stuck behind Ollie Bearman’s Haas, very much consigned to a midfield level of pace.

Considering how much Verstappen is loathing this new era of battery-dominated F1 right now, being forced to retire 11 laps from the end probably counts as a mercy. - BA

Winner: Kimi Antonelli (1st)

I felt like F1, predictably, didn't do right by Antonelli, whose status as 'teenager dragged into one of the highest-profile seats on the grid after a single year in F2' was as if totally forgotten a few races into 2025.

Mercedes was guilty, too - Toto Wolff incomprehensibly ramped up public pressure on his protege towards the end of the European season, as if he wasn't the one who fast-tracked Antonelli into F1.

In any case, whether by coincidence or causation (and I am loathe to think it might be the latter), it's as if those Wolff comments spawned a much F1-readier Antonelli, the culmination of that being this weekend.

He is still raw - see the sprint element, see the late-race error - but he never looked like losing today and has effectively proven he can match George Russell over a race distance, even if qualifying remains a puzzle.

He is plenty good enough to exploit this level of Mercedes car, and will only get better. As Max Verstappen put it: "I'm of course not surprised, this was definitely coming and it won't be his last one." - Valentin Khorounzhiy

Loser: Aston Martin (Double DNF)

Lance Stroll's jovial request to "pray, pray with me" about the prospects of finding an extra gear for engine supplier Honda's upcoming home race in Japan is probably the highlight of the weekend for that whole group, because there is precious, precious little to smile about otherwise.

One car giving up after nine laps, the other forcing its driver to give up after 32. Non-existent competitive prospects. A close race -pace competition with Cadillac that Cadillac - well done, Cadillac! - appears to be winning even before you get into the fact the Cadillacs are making it to the finish and the Astons are not.

But, OK, everyone knew coming out of pre-season that this is how it would look like in these early rounds, so there's no need to write any more words. - VK

Winner: Alpine (6th and 10th)

Neither Alpine driver enjoyed the perfect race, nor achieved the optimum result, but a double points haul has to go down as a win for the team as a whole.

Melbourne was a rougher start than expected, but the lack of high-speed corners in China masked the car’s understeer weakness and Pierre Gasly has looked at it all weekend.

For Franco Colapinto, it was a much messier weekend but he can feel pleased to finally end a run of 24 races without scoring a point.

Incidentally, this was Alpine’s first double points finish since Gasly and Esteban Ocon both finished on the podium at the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix. - BA

Winner: Liam Lawson (7th)

The competitive picture versus Arvid Lindblad will decide Lawson's longer-term F1 prospects, and this weekend was a bit of a free hit in that sense - sprint weekend, limited practice mileage for Lindblad, then two spins that effectively wrote him off.

But Lawson is also a steadier pair of hands than his reputation might suggest, and given the Racing Bulls' relatively muted turn of speed this weekend his total yield of eight points for the event is downright superb.

"We definitely weren't quick this weekend," he said. "We salvaged a good result from a pretty average weekend on pace."

Loser: Audi (11th & DNS)

The Audis just weren't particularly quick this weekend, but the team will probably be less alarmed by that than by the fact each of its cars currently appears to have a crisp 50/50 shot of actually starting a given race.

Gabriel Bortoleto - the unlucky one this time - described the culprit behind his non-start as a "technical issue", continuing the trend of Audi being (needlessly?) vague about its gremlins. 

He spent the race instead tuning in to Nico Hulkenberg's radio, as the German's Audi struggled off the line, had a slow pitstop and ultimately executed what looked like a sub-optimal strategy.

The high attrition rate means this race will sting in terms of lost points, given that Audi didn't score any and the cars it hopes to be fighting did.

Williams is now level on points with Audi despite being slow and, like Audi, only occasionally having two cars in sessions.

Loser: Esteban Ocon (15th)

This looked like the kind of race that had a stealthy big Esteban Ocon points haul written all over it, especially when staying out under the safety car meant Ocon was briefly running in the top three.

But everything went wrong when he tried to overtake a freshly out of the pits Franco Colapinto in the sweeping opening turns. 

By his own admission, Ocon made a costly error all of his own doing, one that ruined his chances of salvaging what’s been a tricky start to the season versus team-mate Ollie Bearman.

He wouldn’t have beaten Bearman, but he could have stopped himself facing a 17-0 points deficit after two weekends. - JS

Winner: Carlos Sainz (9th) 

It was hard to see how Williams could ever score points while its car is both horrendously overweight and horrendously uncompetitive without a truly chaotic race.

And while having four cars out before the race even started certainly helped, this was still a brilliant against-the-odds drive from Sainz with a long stint on the hard tyres.

He had to work hard to keep a recovering Colapinto behind at the end in a much faster Alpine, avoided the kind of mistakes that ruined Ocon’s points chances, and was well clear of a faster Audi and a Racing Bulls. 

Williams is in a really tough place right now, but a bit of Sainz brilliance has at least vanquished any fears of a long point-less streak. - JS

Winner: Ollie Bearman (5th) 

A first grand prix podium is hardly going to raise any questions about Hamilton’s Ferrari future. Still, Ferrari can take comfort from the fact that his potential replacement, whenever he’s needed, is looking really good. 

Having lost out to Gasly in sprint and GP qualifying and Lawson in the sprint race, Bearman finally claimed a Shanghai midfield victory in emphatic style - having led the way in Australia too. 

He’d have beaten Verstappen even without the Red Bull driver’s retirement, too.

And he might not be a fan of F1’s yo-yo racing, but Bearman is seemingly beginning to master it, deftly negotiating his way past the Alpines, Ocon, Hulkenberg and Lindblad. - JS