George Russell will start from pole for Saturday’s Sprint after clinching pole in China Sprint Qualifying.
Mercedes Dominate Sprint Qualifying
George Russell claimed Sprint Qualifying pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix, as Kimi Antonelli ensured Mercedes locked out the front row in Shanghai.
Russell and Mercedes dominated proceedings on Friday. The Briton topped the sole practice session earlier in the day before setting the fastest time in all three segments of Sprint Qualifying.
Russell’s 1m 31.520s in SQ3 with the soft tyre left him nearly three-tenths clear of Antonelli. The young Italian is set to start second after being cleared of impeding Lando Norris.
McLaren and Ferrari Follow
Lando Norris was best of the rest but more than six-tenths behind Russell. Lewis Hamilton split the McLarens in fourth, just in front of Oscar Piastri.
Charles Leclerc was sixth, but a second away from the top time. Pierre Gasly followed the Ferrari driver.
Max Verstappen was only eighth, as the top 10 was completed by Ollie Bearman and Isack Hadjar.
SQ1 Eliminations
Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon failed to progress beyond the first part of Sprint Qualifying. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll also exited at the first hurdle.
How SQ1 Played Out
With just a single, one-hour session of practice under their belts to fine-tune set-ups, drivers headed out into the relative unknown for the opening 12-minute segment of Sprint Qualifying at the Shanghai International Circuit.
The Red Bulls set the early benchmark, Hadjar posting a lap time just fractionally quicker than team mate Verstappen, but as had been the case in the earlier practice session, Russell soon occupied top spot.
The Briton posted a 1m 33.030s, leaving him four-tenths clear of team mate Antonelli following their sole runs, the Mercedes duo returning to the garage for the remainder of the session after a statement of intent.
Leclerc and then Hamilton soon split the pair with their second runs, Ferrari deciding not to run its radical ‘flip-flop’ rear wing which had made an appearance on both cars during practice.
Behind the leading quartet at the chequered flag, Norris got the better of McLaren team mate Piastri as Gasly, Hulkenberg, Ocon and Lawson completed the top 10.
Verstappen could only finish 11th, more than one second behind Russell and complaining of th