Lewis Hamilton will start from pole position in his first sprint race with Ferrari after beating Max Verstappen to the fastest time in Friday’s sprint qualifying session at the Chinese Grand Prix.
In just his second race with the Italian team, Hamilton will start from first place for Saturday’s 19-lap race after Australian Grand Prix winner Lando Norris, who appeared to be on a faster lap behind Hamilton, made a mistake at Turn 14 and ended up sixth.
When all the drivers had completed their laps, Hamilton held a 0.018 seconds over Verstappen, after posting a laptime of 1:30.849, and will start alongside his old rival on the front row of the grid for the first time since the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2023.
The result represents a massive turnaround for Hamilton following his tenth place finish on his Ferrari debut at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix last weekend.
“I didn’t expect that result,” he said after the session. “But so, so happy and so proud.
“I think obviously the last race was a disaster for us. And clearly we knew that there was more performance in the car, we just weren’t able to extract it.
“So to come here to a track that I love, Shanghai, beautiful place, and the weather has been amazing and the car really came alive from Lap 1. We made some great changes, the team did a fantastic job through the break to get the car ready. I’m a bit in shock.
“I can’t believe we got a pole in the sprint. It’s obviously not the main race, so we’ve got work to do for tomorrow. But this puts us in good stead for the race.”
Oscar Piastri secured third place for McLaren, 0.080 seconds off Hamilton’s time, ahead of the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and George Russell’s Mercedes in fifth.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli will start seventh behind Norris, with Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda in eighth, Williams’ Alex Albon in ninth and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in tenth.
Stroll’s teammate Fernando Alonso missed out on a place in the top ten by 0.021 seconds and will start 11th on the grid ahead of Oliver Bearman’s Haas in 12th.
Carlos Sainz was 13th for Williams ahead of another impressive single-lap performance from Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto, who outqualified his more experienced teammate Nico Hulkenberg for the second qualifying session in a row.
Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar will line up 15th on the grid after making a mistake on the first corner of his flying lap, which saw him then switch his focus to making sure he offered a slipstream to teammate Tsunoda.
The two Alpines of Jack Doohan and Pierre Gasly will line up 16th and 17th on the grid ahead of Esteban Ocon’s Haas in 18th.
Nico Hulkenberg was 19th ahead of Liam Lawson, whose nightmare start to the season continued with the slowest time of all.
Lawson’s best effort was 0.8 seconds off teammate Verstappen’s SQ1 time after the New Zealander ran wide and lost the rear of his car at Turn 10.
