F1 Standings 2026: Lewis Hamilton fights back as Max Verstappen melts down

The second race of the 2026 season took place in Shanghai on Sunday. Here are the official standings heading into the Japanese Grand Prix at the end of March.

While Kimi Antonelli claimed his first ever F1 victory and Lewis Hamilton stood on the podium for the first time as a Ferrari driver, both of them remain behind their team-mates – although the gaps have closed up.

George Russell and Charles Leclerc finished second and fourth respectively, helping Ferrari and Mercedes pull away even further from the chasing pack.

That chasing pack should, in theory, contain reigning constructors' champions McLaren. However, neither of their drivers were even able to start Sunday's race thanks to electrical issues, stranding them on 18 points. That's 80 points behind Mercedes, after just two race weekends.

A nightmare weekend for Red Bull saw Max Verstappen fail to earn a single point in the sprint OR feature race, retiring from Sunday's grand prix with ten laps to go thanks to more Red Bull reliability issues.

The four-time world champion sits eighth in the drivers' standings after two races, level on eight points with Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson. The pair's team-mates both sit on four points, meaning that the senior and junior teams sit tied on 12 points in the constructors' standings.

Oh, and both Cadillac and Aston Martin remain without a single point to their names.

Here are the official standings after the race in China and heading into the Japanese Grand Prix in a couple of weeks.

READ MORE: Hamilton Chinese GP disqualification a watershed moment for Ferrari

F1 Drivers' Standings after 2026 Chinese Grand Prix

F1 Constructors' Standings after 2026 Chinese Grand Prix

READ MORE: McLaren F1 disaster as both drivers out of Chinese Grand Prix before start

Written by

Sheona Mountford - F1 Journalist

Sheona Mountford is a motorsport journalist specialising in F1. As a writer and contributor, she covers a wide range of motorsport series from F1 to F1 Academy, responsible for breaking news, live race coverage and in depth analysis of the sport and the culture around it.

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