George Russell achieved his first sprint pole in his Formula 1 career by dominating sprint qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, leading teammate Kimi Antonelli for a Mercedes 1-2.
Like he did in Melbourne, Russell was fastest in all three qualifying segments at Shanghai. The Silver Arrows easily outpaced rivals McLaren and Ferrari, with Max Verstappen only eighth for Red Bull.
Russell set the tone by going quickest in SQ1 with one minute, 33.030 seconds, leading the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. The other Mercedes of Antonelli was four tenths off, with the McLarens nearly eight tenths away.
Verstappen was only P11 then, complaining about his RB22’s “horrendous” driveability, followed by Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto.
A lock-up at Turn 11 and lap time improvements at Alpine meant Alex Albon was eliminated alongside Williams teammate Carlos Sainz, the Aston Martins and Valtteri Bottas, nearly two seconds slower than Fernando Alonso. Sergio Perez was unable to take part in the session due to a fuel system issue, after a similar technical problem took Bottas out of the Australian Grand Prix.
The Silver Arrows were last to take to the track in SQ2 but went to the top straight away, with Russell in one minute, 32.241 seconds and Antonelli in one minute, 32.570 seconds – but Kimi seemingly blocked Lando in Turn 1. Other than Leclerc in one minute, 32.602 seconds, nobody was fewer than nine tenths away from the lead Mercedes.
As Antonelli improved to one minute, 32.291 seconds, Verstappen went wide in the final corner. The Red Bull very narrowly emerged out of SQ2, with the four-time champion 0.071 seconds quicker than Nico Hulkenberg while his teammate Isack Hadjar was just 0.015 seconds ahead of the Audi.
Both Audis and Racing Bulls were eliminated, alongside Esteban Ocon and Franco Colapinto, whose teammates Bearman and Pierre Gasly outpaced the Red Bulls on their way to SQ3.
Russell’s first SQ3 benchmark was one minute, 31.520 seconds, outpacing Antonelli, Hamilton, Leclerc and Verstappen by 0.36 seconds, 0.64 seconds, 1.21 seconds and 1.73 seconds respectively. The other five cars, including the McLarens and Hadjar, remained in the garage until the last possible moment.
Antonelli improved by 0.07 seconds on his second lap. So did Leclerc by 0.20 seconds, but it was not enough to match their respective teammates. Norris got third, narrowly beating Hamilton and Oscar Piastri. Verstappen and Hadjar qualified down in eighth and tenth, with Gasly seventh.
So congratulations to George Russell with P1. His first sprint pole of his Formula 1 career. The Silver Arrows continues to impress with a front row locked out. Will be fascinating if the others can beat the pace settle in the sprint race.
Chinese Grand Prix, sprint qualifying results:
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:31.520
2 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:31.809
3 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:32.141
4 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:32.161
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:32.224
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:32.528
7 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes 1:32.888
8 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:33.254
9 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:33.409
10 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford 1:33.723
11 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:33.635
12 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:33.639
13 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford 1:33.714
14 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:33.774
15 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:34.048
16 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes 1:34.327
17 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:34.761
18 Alex Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:35.305
19 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:35.581
20 Lance Stroll Aston Marin-Honda 1:36.151
21 Valterri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:37.378
22 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari No time
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 having topped the sole practice session earlier in the day before setting the fastest time in all three segments of Sprint Qualifying.
The Briton’s 1m 31.520s in SQ3 with the soft tyre left him nearly three-tenths clear of Antonelli, with the young Italian under investigation post-session for impeding Lando Norris earlier in proceedings.
Reigning World Champion Lando Norris was best of the rest but more than six-tenths behind Russell, as Ferrari’s 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, as the Ferrari driver was followed by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen only eighth as the top 10 was completed by Ollie Bearman (Haas) and the second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/russell-clinches-pole-position-in-china-sprint-qualifying-ahead-of-antonelli.5jusmBWV5jpO0919j6RzYg
Mercedes’ George Russell held an advantage of well over half a second to the next quickest Formula 1 team – the McLaren of Lando Norris – in sprint qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix.
This continued the Silver Arrows’ bright start to the 2026 season, following on from its 1-2 finish in the Melbourne season opener. Although it was understood before the season that Mercedes was likely to contend at the front of the grid, its advantage thus far has been described as “impressive” by Oscar Piastri.
Russell and team-mate Kimi Antonelli locked out the front row for the sprint, as an investigation into the Italian’s involvement with a potential impeding incident was awarded no further action; Norris told the stewards that he was not on a push lap, which rescued Antonelli from a penalty.
Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff pinpointed his team’s current advantage when speaking to Sky Germany after sprint qualifying.
“I’m really satisfied, or we can be satisfied with how it went. There’s a healthy gap to the others. But for me, sprint qualifying and also the sprint race feel a bit like the small race of the weekend,” Wolff told Sky.
“Tomorrow is the real qualifying and Sunday is the grand prix. If we could carry this performance forward there, that would of course be great.
“I think our big advantage here is mainly in the corners. You can see it in certain cases: [Pierre] Gasly, for example, was the fastest on the straights, but our advantage comes in the corners.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/toto-wolff-explains-mercedes-f1-china-sprint-qualifying-gap-to-field/10804693/
Oscar Piastri labelled the Mercedes superiority as “pretty impressive” after the Silver Arrows secured yet another 1-2 in Formula 1 qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race.
Mercedes is the team that has nailed the switch to these all-new 2026 cars, as at last weekend’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix it secured a 1-2 in both qualifying and the race.
It continued such rich form in Shanghai with George Russell once again leading Kimi Antonelli, this time the Briton taking pole by 0.289s with McLaren’s Lando Norris next fastest in third.
The reigning world champion was 0.621s off pole ahead of fourth-placed Lewis Hamilton, with Norris’ team-mate Piastri in fifth and seven tenths behind Russell in qualifying for Saturday’s race.
Piastri said: “It was reasonable. I think the step in grip from the medium to the soft was pretty big. But yeah, obviously the gap to Mercedes is pretty impressive.
“So, some things for us to try and work on. I think the car felt pretty good. It was a pretty decent lap. I don’t think there was too much left.”
Those thoughts were echoed by his team boss Andrea Stella, who was more impressed at being in the fight with Ferrari as it took fourth via Hamilton and sixth through Charles Leclerc.
“There’s some indications of improvements,” said Stella. “Especially I would say in the way we understand how to use the power unit, there was less variability in the first practice session, more clarity as to how we were using it during qualifying.
“This was realised in some better lap times, which allow us to qualify behind Mercedes, that at the moment are out of reach.
“But it’s good to see that McLaren can fight for the runner-up position together with Ferrari, a good start position with Oscar and Lando, they both drove very well and it’s a good situation for the sprint tomorrow.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/oscar-piastri-mercedes-superiority-at-f1-chinese-gp-is-pretty-impressive/10804641/
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen says his Friday has been a “disaster” at the Chinese Grand Prix, having qualified down in eighth for the Shanghai sprint race.
The four-time world champion was already eighth in the only free practice session of the weekend, no less than 1.8s off the pace compared to George Russell’s dominant Mercedes.
In sprint qualifying, Verstappen complained about his RB22’s horrendous driveability; he was 11th in SQ1, improving to ninth and eighth in the next two segments despite an off in the last corner in SQ2.
Although the Dutchman’s position improved, his deficit to Russell increased from 1.140s in SQ1 to 1.734s in SQ3. Team-mate Isack Hadjar was a further half a second adrift in 10th.
“The whole day has been a disaster, pace-wise,” Verstappen lamented on F1 TV. “Yeah, no grip. Honestly, I think that’s the biggest problem – no grip, no balance, just losing massive amounts of time in the corners, to be honest. Then, of course, because of that, you start to trigger other little problems. But the big problem for us is just the cornering is completely out.”
Asked if he could try something different and aggressive with the set-up for the main qualifying and race, Verstappen succinctly replied: “We’ll have a look. I don’t know at the moment what we can do. We’ll see.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/max-verstappen-lost-massive-time-in-corners-in-red-bulls-qualifying-disaster/10804629/
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were left with differing views after Sprint Qualifying at the Shanghai International Circuit – the former feeling “really pleased” and the latter left to rue issues on his final timed lap.
Hamilton’s SQ3 effort put him fourth on the grid for the Sprint, between McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, while Charles Leclerc had to settle for sixth, some three-and-a-half tenths down on his team mate.
Reflecting on his team-leading result, following a difficult practice hour, Hamilton said: “Really pleased with the session. My team did a really great job, my engineers did a fantastic job to turn the car around, because in P1 it was a tricky session with that spin.
“The car generally felt great, it’s just I think we’re losing… I think it’s on the straights, it’s a lot of time to be losing. We have a lot of work to do, we really have to push so hard back [at the factory] in Maranello to improve on power.
“It’s something that I think we were conscious of last year, we thought that Mercedes started [on the new regulations] earlier than us, or the rest, which they did last time as well. They’ve done a fantastic job, and we’ve got to step up, we’ve got to push to be able to close that gap.
“I think car-wise, the car feels great, and I think we can compete with them through corners, but when you’re down on power it’s just the way it is.”
Hamilton was also asked about Ferrari trialling their ‘flip-flop’ rear wing in FP1, before going back to the specification used for the season-opener in Australia.
“I don’t really know why we went back on it,” he commented. “We rushed it to get it here, and it was not supposed to be on the car until it was like race four or five, something like that.
“They did a great job to rush it here, we only had two of them, and it was maybe a little bit premature, so we took it off. The car was still great and we’ll work to try and bring it back when it’s ready.”
Leclerc, meanwhile, gave his take on a “frustrating session”, having set the third-fastest time in SQ2 before dropping to sixth in the decisive SQ3 phase.
“First the toggle, then unfortunately when I had a good lap, I lost half a second in the back straight for whatever reason – on the second lap in SQ3,” he said. “We’ll analyse that and try to understand what’s gone wrong.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/hamilton-and-leclerc-left-with-contrasting-emotions-after-mixed-sprint.41ZOC61wAmciP7VOYnTKMN