Chinese GP Review: Antonelli Stars & Ferrari’s Gripping Battle

F1: Chequered Flag

BBC

Sports

4.2 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mercedes show their strength once again, but will we have an inter-team title fight between George Russell and Kimi Antonelli after the Italian’s star show in China? Ferrari produced a battle for the ages, so is Lewis Hamilton back to his best? Plus, what is going on at McLaren? Harry Benjamin, former McLaren Formula E driver Sam Bird and the BBC’s F1 correspondent Andrew Benson review the Chinese Grand Prix, asking whether the new rules have worked or whether this is now a ‘battery world championship’.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:07.0	An early start here. It's time to kick off.
0:10.0	Your day. Morning!
0:11.9	What a line-up.
0:13.3	Oh, thanks very much. We do get some great guests on the show.
0:16.1	The crowd is loving this.
0:18.3	Thanks, guys. Thank you. Too kind.
0:20.2	From morning chaos to match day commentary. And everything in
0:24.4	between. BBC sounds packed with personality.
0:29.9	Five Live Formula One.
0:34.4	Hello and welcome to your F1 checkered flag review of the Chinese Grand Prix.
0:40.3	And to get into everything we've just seen alongside myself, Harry Benjamin, is the Formula E-driver, Sam Bird, and the BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson.
0:49.3	We've just had, we've actually just come out of the commentary box, haven't we, Sam, really?
0:53.3	One out by Kimmy Antonelli. We witnessed history yesterday in qualifying. History again for Kimmy Antonelli. 20 years since the last Italian won a race. Big day for Kimmy. Big day for Kimmy, bad day if you're Giancarlo Fisie Keller. Oh, well, Fizzy. What a day for Italian motorsport, I've got to say. Ferrari looked like they're back and Kimi Antonelli winning the race, absolutely brilliant. And it looked like he had it well in hand, Andrew. Got a bad start. Well, is it bad to say bad start because everyone, they made to look bad because the Ferraris are just so good. I think that's it. They lost out to Ferrari at the start. Well, is it bad to say bad start because everyone, they, they made to look bad because
1:27.8	the Ferraris are just so good. I think that's it. They lost out to Ferrari at the start again. But he, unlike George Russell, he wasn't as compromised and got into the lead again quite quickly and controlled the race from there, basically. It was a very, it was a copybook victory, very mature. He's still only a kid, you know, 19 years old.
1:46.0	He's only been in form 1 just over a year.
1:48.0	He had a very difficult season for his debut year last year, you know,
1:52.0	middle of the season, a big dip, but he seems to have come out of that.
1:56.0	And this was very convincing, and it's, you know,
1:59.0	suggests that he can push George Russell for the championship.
2:02.8	Whether that's realistic is a different question in his second season.
2:06.2	George Russell's a highly accomplished Formula One driver, one of the best in the world.
	...

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