Hamilton pips Verstappen to take pole for Ferrari in Shanghai sprint race · RaceFans

Lewis Hamilton claimed a pole position in his second appearance as a Ferrari driver, for the sprint race in Shanghai.

McLaren failed to capitalise on the performance they showed in practice as Max Verstappen claimed second on the grid, just 18 thousandths of a second off Hamilton.

SQ1

Liam Lawson’s tough graduation to Red Bull’s main Formula 1 team continued as he was eliminated in the first round of qualifying for the sprint race. “I’m sorry, I could not get the tyres down,” he told his team after struggling with high tyre temperatures.

Both Alpine drivers also dropped out in the first round. Jack Doohan lost one lap time due to a track limits infringement, yet still managed to out-qualify Pierre Gasly.

Nico Hulkenberg was stunned to learn he’d failed to progress after finishing the session in 19th place. “What?” he exclaimed on his radio. “Oh my god…”

Oliver Bearman brought some cheer to Haas by taking his VF-25 into the second round. Esteban Ocon did his best to follow him, but an error at the final corner left him 18th.

The McLaren drivers set strong laps early in the session but a late flying effort from Hamilton put the Ferrari driver on top. The stewards examined potential impeding incidents involving George Russell, Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda but elected to take no action.

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SQ1 result

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SQ2

Mercedes played a risky game in the second round of qualifying, leaving it until the dying moments for Antonelli and Russell to set their final flying laps. The pair delivered clean laps, however, and secured their progression to the final round with places in the top five.

Those late improvements were bad news for Oliver Bearman, who briefly got his Haas into the top 10, and Alonso, who delivered a strong lap for second earlier in the session. Both found themselves eliminated, Alonso suffering a rare defeat to team mate Lance Stroll, who reached SQ3.

Isack Hadjar made a mistake at the beginning of his final lap, but showed great presence of mind by staying ahead of his team mate and giving him a useful tow down the back straight. That likely made the difference for Tsunoda, who made the cut for the next round by less than three-hundredths of a second.

Alexander Albon went through in seventh while Sainz failed to make the cut. Bortoleto also went no further after his strong performance in SQ1.

Both Ferrari drivers made it through but there was some discontent on Leclerc’s part when he was told to let Hamilton through at one stage. “I’ll do it but we’ve never done that,” he told race engineer Bryan Bozzi, “and I’m a bit in the shit here.”

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SQ2 result

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SQ3

McLaren had looked the hot favourites for pole position in Shanghai but stumbled at the final hurdle.

The team sent the drivers out for two runs on the soft tyres. Piastri’s first effort was solid enough for provisional pole position, but Norris fell short. While Piastri couldn’t improve on his final effort, Norris set the fastest first sector time of any driver, but ran well wide at the turn 14 hairpin and aborted his run.

That left the round one winner only sixth. Hamilton took full advantage, posting a 1’30.849 to claim pole position. Red Bull left Verstappen’s sole run to the very end and he exploited the improving track conditions superbly, coming within two hundredths of a second of snatching pole away from Hamilton. But it was enough to clear the front row of McLarens, leaving Piastri third.

Leclerc took fourth ahead of Russell, bumping Norris back to sixth. Antonelli claimed seventh while Tsunoda came out ahead in the midfield scrap ahead of Albon, much as he had done in Melbourne, with Stroll 10th.

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SQ3 result