Lewis Hamilton blew up his seat at the Sprint pole with his new track record on his second weekend as a Ferrari driver at the Chinese Grand Prix.
McLaren began qualifying for the sprint as a comfortable favourite after Randorris was top of the sole practice session in almost 0.5 seconds, but the team’s challenge fell apart at the final hurdle.
Oscar Piastri took the interim pole on his first lap, but was unable to improve on his second lap, putting him in third place, but Norris made a mistake on both flying laps and came in sixth in order. They kept the door open wide to Hamilton. Hamilton stitched together the purple mid-division to set a new achievement of 30.849 sm and took a sprint pole.
“I didn’t expect the outcome, but I’m very, very happy and very proud,” he said. “The final race was obviously a disaster for us, and obviously we knew we were there as more performance on the car. We couldn’t extract it.
“The car really came to life a lap before. We made some big changes. The team does a great job and prepares the car through breaks. I’m a bit shocked. I can’t believe we actually have poles in the sprint.”
However, Hamilton, a six-time pole getter and race winner at China’s Grand Prix, warned that he still hopes he is a team that will hit the balance for the weekend.
McLaren’s inadequate performance led Max Verstappen to sneak into the front row on a lap after a checkered flag, with Dutchman missing just 0.018 seconds.
Piastri stuck in the third, and the Australian missed the pole by just 0.08s courtesy of his first flying lap. Charles Leclerc was 0.208s slower than his Paul Award-winning teammate.
The fifth was the best Mercedes could manage. George Russell is 0.32 seconds away from the pace, but is faster than Australia’s Grand Prix winner Norris in sixth place.
Norris made two serious mistakes in SQ3, sacrificing shots on poles in both the final sector. His first lap was ruined by a large slide through turn 13, followed by a straight back, which took him almost 0.4 seconds.
His two laps looked good enough to put him in the mix until he was trapped in a 14-turn hairpin and forced him to abandon the lap. It did not represent him the 0.544S away from the pole.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished seventh in Mercedes ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon and Reims’ walks.
Fernando Alonso was knocked out of SQ2 on 0.021, finishing 11th ahead of British rookie Oliver Baerman.
Carlos Sainz was disappointed in 13th place, and the Spaniard complained of poor balance on the way to 13th place ahead of Kick Thorber’s rookie Gabriel Boltreto.
Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar will be in 15th place after scotching his final lap with a washout at turn 1-2. He then gave teammate Yuki Tsunoda a big slipstream straight down his back, helping the Japanese ace squeal at SQ3 in just 0.021 seconds.
Alpine teammates Jacques Douhan and Pierre Guthrie came in 16th and 17th place after embarking on the final flight lap earlier than most fields. On the evolving circuit, Duhan missed the second stop in just 0.036 seconds. Guthrie was borne by 0.065 seconds.
Esteban Ocon was knocked out on the 18th for Haas ahead of Southern Nico Halkenberg. Both drivers were beaten by SQ2 by their younger teammates.
Liam Lawson last placed the Red Bull racing car on the grid after lapsing 0.813 slower than SQ3 bind teammate Verstappen.
“To be honest, I couldn’t get the tires down,” Kiwi said, apologizing to Team Radio after a driver who is not confident in his car.
