Triple champion Max Verstappen achieved Red Bull Racing’s 100th pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix. His lap time of one minute, 33.660 seconds was three tenths clear of teammate Sergio Perez
The title leader had rarely looked beatable throughout the session and set out in pursuit of pole position, particularly as no other driver had been able to beat his opening one minute, 33.977 seconds effort – let alone his ultimate pole lap.
This set up a thrilling battle to join him on the front row, however, and a series of contenders all bid their claim to start at the front. Fernando Alonso ended the first runs with the second-best laptime, but the second Q3 run provided further improvements.
Carlos Sainz, who recovered from a Q2 crash, initially popped up onto the front row, but was beaten by Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc. Oscar Piastri beat them in turn before Lando Norris relegated his teammate, but Alonso then briefly reclaimed his earlier position.
But Perez broke into the one minute, 33 seconds to seal a Red Bull 1-2, knocking Alonso down to the second row of the grid – where he starts alongside Norris.
Piastri starts fifth alongside Leclerc, while Sainz joins George Russell on the fourth row as he was Mercedes’ sole representative in the top half of the field.
Nico Hulkenberg broke into Q3 and starts Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix race from ninth, with Valtteri Bottas completing the top ten.
Q2 was interrupted by a red flag as Sainz clipped the gravel with his rear tyres on the exit of the final corner and spun, ending up in the wall on the opposite end of the track. It looked as though the Ferrari driver was going to be unable to fire his car up again, but he recovered his car out of its resting place and made it back into the pits.
Sainz managed to not only get back on track, but escaped the Q2 drop zone with a significant margin to book his slot into the final stage of qualifying.
Lance Stroll was eliminated out in the final moments as Bottas shrugged off his place in the drop zone with a time good enough for P10, while Daniel Ricciardo’s place in the top ten had been brief as Leclerc put the RB driver back into the drop zone, where he shook out in P12.
Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly both sandwiched Alex Albon, as neither Alpine nor the remaining Williams could break out of Q2.
Lewis Hamilton proved to be the biggest elimination in Q1 in a frantic end due to track evolution, although the seven-time champion could not benefit after a lock-up at Turn 14.
Having sought to break out of the drop zone, his final lap left Hamilton looking precarious at best ahead of a final runs in P12, but further improvements enforced his drop out.
Pierre Gasly ultimately tipped Hamilton into the bottom five with his own escape from the drop, and both local hero Zhou Guanyu and Kevin Magnussen also fell into the elimination zone despite briefly finding safety in an ever-changing session – Zhou also snatching at the front wheels into Turn 14 on the brakes.
Yuki Tsunoda faced a brief DRS issue and, although this was fixed, the RB driver could not break out of Q1 despite feeling his lap was good. Logan Sargeant suffered a spin and will start last for the main race.
So it’s been a brilliant day for Max Verstappen. Winner in the sprint race earlier and now in P1 for the main race and achieving the team’s 100th pole in the sport. Simply lovely.
Chinese Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:33.660
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:33.982
3 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:34.148
4 Lando Norris McLaren 1:34.165
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:34.273
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:34.289
7 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:34.297
8 George Russell Mercedes 1:34.433
9 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:34.604
10 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:34.665
11 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:34.838
12 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:34.934
13 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:35.223
14 Alexander Albon Williams 1:35.241
15 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:35.463
16 Zhou Guanyu Sauber
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:35.516
18 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:35.573
19 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:35.746
20 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:36.358
Max Verstappen has continued his strong run of form after clinching a dominant pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix, taking Red Bull’s 100th pole in their history.
The Dutchman set the pace throughout the session at the Shanghai International Circuit and improved further in Q3, setting an unbeaten time of 1m 33.660s. While an exciting battle ensued for P2, it was Verstappen’s team mate Sergio Perez who took the position.
Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin in third, ahead of the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, while Charles Leclerc followed in sixth.
Carlos Sainz recovered from an earlier incident in Q2 – having spun into the barriers, bringing out the red flags in the process – to finish the session in P7, with George Russell the lead Mercedes in P8. Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas completed the top 10 in ninth and 10th respectively.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-seals-pole-position-for-chinese-grand-prix-as-he-heads-perez-and.3dsF99wBxlnShqMIXSoWe5
Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso revealed he nearly aborted the lap that put him third on Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix grid after losing time in Turn 1.
Alonso impressed in Shanghai by beating the McLaren and Ferrari cars to third in Q3, the best-of-the-rest spot behind the dominant Red Bulls of polesitter Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
But Alonso admitted that he considered aborting the final lap that pushed him up the grid after slipping up through the complex starting sequence of the Shanghai circuit, which made him lose a couple of tenths.
“In sector one I had a moment in Turn 1 and 2 and I nearly lost the car,” Alonso said. “And then I said: ‘Okay, I keep going or I abort the lap? Because I lost like two tenths in two corners. But we didn’t give up, we kept pushing all through the lap and set a good lap time.”
The Spaniard said his Aston Martin squad had used the re-opening of parc ferme, a new addition to the revised sprint weekend format, to make further car tweaks that he hopes will pay off in Sunday’s grand prix.
“I think the car did improve since this morning, we made a few set-up changes. Let’s see tomorrow if we can translate that into good points,” he explained.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alonso-considered-aborting-p3-lap-in-f1-china-qualifying/10601047/
Max Verstappen followed up his Sprint victory with pole for the Grand Prix, capping a dream day for the Dutchman. He is sharing the front row with his team mate tomorrow, while Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris are the two on the second row tasked with chasing down those Bulls. Here are all the best facts and stats from a frantic qualifying in Shanghai…
*Verstappen takes Red Bull’s 100th pole, at the same circuit where they scored their first pole.
*The Dutchman is the first driver in the 21st century to take the first five poles in a season, Mika Hakkinen the last to do so in 1999.
*Verstappen has taken pole at 21 different circuits, surpassing both Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell to move fourth in the all-time list.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/facts-and-stats-verstappen-matches-hakkinen-by-grabbing-opening-poles-at.6MpvvZhgqODZ2kEIDoFlPd
Lewis Hamilton blamed a tailwind for the Turn 14 moment that pitched him out of Q1 for Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix in his “knife-edge” Mercedes.
Just hours after Hamilton had delivered his best result of the season so far as he finished second in the Shanghai sprint, he came crashing back to earth as he failed to make it out of the first session of qualifying.
Having braked too deep at Turn 14 thanks to the tailwind, Hamilton lost crucial time and was knocked out as he ended up 18th on the grid.
“I don’t blame anything on the team,” he said. “I think, not my best qualifying laps.”
“Shit happens you know,” he said. “Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don’t. This car is on a knife edge, as we know, so it can easily do what we’ve had. But I’ll have some fun from there.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-blames-wind-q1-error-mercedes/10601093/
Max Verstappen conceded he was happier to qualify on pole for Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix than with winning Saturday morning’s sprint race.
Verstappen romped home to a 13-second win over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in Shanghai’s 19-lap sprint, before going on to claim a dominant pole for Sunday’s proper grand prix as well.
A long-time opponent of the sprint format, Verstappen said he was more pleased with his pole position than with his sprint win, although he did concede its rejigged format with two separate parc ferme periods is a big improvement.
“It’s a more logical and nicer format,” Verstappen said. “I was still happier with pole than with the sprint race, of course.
Elaborating on his opinion to Sky Sports F1, Verstappen added: “I did think it’s nicer than what we had, just that you also able to make some changes to the car after the sprint.
“The only thing which was a little bit weird was that you did a race and then you go back into qualifying [mode].
“Maybe we should do qualifying and then the race. I don’t know but these are just things to fine-tune maybe. But overall, definitely better than what we used to have.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-happier-with-pole-than-sprint-race-win-at-f1-china/10601154/