THE BIG PICTURE: As expected, it's really difficult to fully gauge the response to these new rules. The drivers losing (especially Max) are very vocal against them. The drivers winning or caught up in amazing battles are having fun. The fans so far like it, but haven't seen the effects on qualifying in certain places like Monaco.

EVENT: We might have complained about the validity of the announced attendance figures last year, but we can't deny China is getting great crowds, for every day.

TRACK: Just like Australia accentuated the downside of the new rules, China may have covered some up. We think Suzuka, an old style track, could fall in the middle.

SPRINT SHOOTOUT: Mercedes keeps it rolling, Norris surprises the Ferraris, while Piastri splits the red cars, Hamilton keeps getting happier beating out Leclerc, Hadjar keeps hanging well with Verstappen, but the Red Bulls are drifting backwards.

SPRINT: Frantic. Antonelli ruins his team's 1-2 because of his penalty, Bearman did well again, and Red Bull would like to forget this sprint.

SPRINT START: Antonelli gets an even worse start and drops like a stone, Hamilton immediately gets racy and goes back and forth with his former teammate, Verstappen also gets a terrible start, and Lindblad spins around.

QUALIFYING: Antonelli is the youngest F1 pole winner in history. Russell has car problems, getting only one lap to get on the front row. Ferrari is on the second row again while McLaren moves up to the third row as Red Bull continues to struggle at China where they got beat by Gasly in an Alpine.

RACE: Déjà vu all over again. But with a different winner. A first time winner.

START: You guessed it. A Ferrari stomps Mercedes off the line giving Hamilton the lead and Leclerc third place. Antonelli does well this time but Verstappen stumbles again. Gasly did an oopsie and backs up, and four cars, including the world champions, don't even take the start.

ANTONELLI: Kimi may not be the youngest F1 winner (second youngest), but he sure looks the youngest. A brilliant drive with one massive "Oh, shit!" moment.

RUSSELL: Will George now be challenged? Will that pressure or the feeling Wolff clearly favors Antonelli get to him?

MERCEDES: Three of their customer cars could not start the race due to electrical problems which may or may not link back to their engines. If so, it's not a good look.

HAMILTON: Lewis is so back.

LECLERC: Now Charles is seeing the true Hamilton. And actually enjoying it.

FERRARI: Closer, yes. But was it more the track?

BEARMAN: No disrespect to Antonelli, who has the best car to show off his talents, but we still lean towards Ollie being the best rookie of last year's class. An amazing performance, in perhaps the least funded team, for fifth place.

OCON: Is it any wonder it was Esteban's fault in his collision with Colapinto?

HAAS: Ahead of Red Bull in the standings.

RED BULL: Not even as quick as Haas.

GASLY: The Alpine was faster (when running), so Pierre really got to show off his capabilities.

LAWSON: This time, Liam was the leading Racing Bulls driver.

LINDBLAD: While Arvid got brought back down to Earth a bit.

SAINZ: No disrespect to Carlos or Williams, but this point scoring finish was the case of circumstances of bad luck for others than anything the Williams can produce right now.

COLAPINTO: Credit where it's due. Even suffering a hard hit and damage knocking him off course from Ocon, Franco still scored a point

PEREZ: Wow. The only thing Cadillac needs right now is to get mileage and laps under its belt. And you nearly took both cars out on the start. That move was almost as dumb as Ocon's move on Gasly in Monaco a couple of years ago. And it ultimately cost Ocon his job.

ASTON MARTIN: Tip to all race teams' strategists: always expect a VSC/SC in the first 10-15 laps for when an Aston Martin goes kaput on the side of the track.

PIASTRI: Oscar has yet to start a grand prix this year.

F1 ACADEMY: Austrian Emma Felbermayr started sixth in the reverse grid race 1 and finished third (which was won by Dutchwoman Nina Gademan). Then, she started third in the second race, took the lead when Alba Larsen went wide on a restart, and withstood attacks from pole sitter Alisha Palmowski to win.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Youth.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 4 -- The number of nonstarters, which is a reliability issue F1 has not seen in a very long time.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: The previous Italian F1 winner was Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2006 Malaysian GP from pole. He was the number two driver to Fernando Alonso, who won that year's championship, on the Renault team which also won the constructor's title by five points. Fisichella finished fourth in the championship. In his career, Fisichella won three times.

TWEET OF THE WEEKEND: From @ChrisHewgill:

Charles Leclerc deserves a knighthood or something for going on the radio to say he was enjoying a battle rather than whinging like most of them do nowadays. I'd give him an extra world championship point for that

#F1 #ChineseGP

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Kimi Antonelli in what was probably the understatement of the race, about his lock up and off with mere laps to go, "I gave myself a little bit of a heart attack."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Charles Leclerc while in the middle of an intense losing battle with Lewis Hamilton clearly disagreed with Verstappen's constant complaints, "This is actually quite a fun battle."

SCHEDULE: Off to Japan, the land of the wackiest F1 fans. And then an unexpected break, the longest of the year.

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