A nightmare for McLaren in Shanghai as both cars fail to take part in Chinese Grand Prix

Champions McLaren discovered ‌an electronics issue with Norris's car before it was due to head out on track while Australian Piastri's car was then pushed off the grid and back ​to the garage.

Mechanics removed the floor on Norris's car, with the ​team still working to resolve the problem as the grid ⁠closed for the second race of the season.

The Briton had qualified sixth, ​with Piastri fifth but both grid positions were left empty.

"It's an electric ​issue on the power unit," Piastri told reporters shortly after the race start, "which I think was the same for Lando, but it's not the same electrical issue.

"It's been ​a while since I've watched two grands prix on TV," added the ​Australian, who crashed out of the season-opener in Melbourne on his reconnaissance lap before ‌the ⁠start of the race.

Piastri won in China last year from pole position, he added: "They're (the power units) just incredibly complex, and there's so many rules on the power units that you sometimes change one thing and it has a very ​unintended consequence somewhere ​else."

His ⁠British teammate said he got into his car while mechanics worked on it in case there was a ​red flag early on, though at no point did ​it look ⁠race-ready, he conceded.

"We cant race," Norris vented. "Just frustrating, it is on the PU side so the guys tried as hard as they could to get things sorted but they were unable to.

"My first DNS in F1, tough to take but that is racing sometimes. It is disappointing. My first non start in F1. But I have to take it.

"I heard about the problem an hour before going out and I found out about it. The mechanics and engineers are still going through the process.

"We do not know what happened," the reigning F1 World Champion concluded.

The Williams of Alex Albon suffered a hydraulics problem on the way to the grid while Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto also failed to start, ⁠leaving 18 ​cars on the grid.

Mercedes locked out the ​front row with 19-year-old Italian Kimi Antonelli the youngest ever grand prix polesitter ahead of ​championship-leading teammate George Russell.

Antonelli went on to win the race with Russell in second place as Lewis Hamilton was third. (Reporting by Joe Cash, Writing by Alan Baldwin, Additional reporting by GrandPrix247)