Scuderia Ferrari HP’s Lewis Hamilton claimed his first pole position for the Italian team at the Chinese Grand Prix for Saturday’s Sprint race.
Hamilton, who set a time of 01:30.849s and speaking following the action he said:
It was mega! Really happy with the result. We knew there was more in the car after Australia, and here, it just came alive from lap one. The team’s done a great job since Melbourne.Pole for the Sprint Race is a great place to be, but there’s still work to do. I’ve not done a proper race run in the dry yet, so tomorrow will be a real test. The other teams will be quick, but we’re in the fight and will keep pushing.
Defending champion Max Verstappen rolls off from second for Oracle Red Bull Racing just ahead of Oscar Piastri.
Charles Leclerc starts the Sprint from 4th and speaking following the action he said:
We didn’t put it all together today. Our main challenge was in turns 1 to 3 and apart from that everything was quite tight, so we will see where we stand tomorrow. It’s not ideal to start the Sprint Race from P4, but I will give it my all to fight my way to the front. Our main focus around here will be on tyres, and then we will see what’s possible in Qualifying ahead of Sunday’s race.
Scuderia Ferrari HP Team Principal Fred Vasseur says:
We are clearly happy with this afternoon’s result. After a difficult qualifying last week in Australia, today’s performance is a boost for the whole team and is definitely very positive, also for Lewis who has been quick throughout the whole day, quickest in SQ1 too. Charles was also competitive and with both cars on the front two rows we can aim to bring home plenty of points tomorrow. Clearly the McLarens have great pace both on a single lap and over a longer run. We must remain focused and plan how to execute the race down to the smallest detail as tomorrow’s Sprint will provide useful information for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team’s George Russell starts fifth just ahead of Lando Norris who made a rare mistake.
A frustrating Sprint Qualifying. I struggled with the car today at times and the conditions made it challenging. I pushed a bit too hard on my final lap which has put me lower in the order than we wanted. Overall, the car is still in a good window so there’s a lot we can take from today’s sessions. We’ll now focus on working hard overnight as a team to get ready to go again tomorrow and score strong points.”
Kimi Antonelli ended the day in seventh place just ahead of Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon of the Atlassian Williams Racing Formula One Team and speaking following the action he said:
I’m pretty happy, but I think we have a bit of work to do with the car. This track isn’t quite suiting us at the minute so we need to make a few changes. It’s not that easy to know what to do with the tyres, they’re quite sensitive. Long corners, like those here in China, tend to make the tyres work harder. It’s hard to get them to a good place and it feels like you have to manage them, and overmanage them in many ways. We’ll do some work overnight and try to come back stronger tomorrow.
Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten for the Aston Martin Aramaco Formula One Team just ahead of of Fernando Alonso and Oliver Bearman.
Carlos Sainz was 13th and speaking following the action he said:
I’ve struggled all day with the balance and both sessions have been quite tough. In Sprint Qualy we had a few issues, including a weird feeling with the seat that we’ll look into, but overall it comes down to me still not feeling at home in the car. I still have to learn and understand many things about it and I know with more mileage, it will come. Hopefully tomorrow we can put everything together and improve today’s result for Sunday.
Gabriel Bortoleto rolls off 14th and speaking following the action he said:
It’s been an encouraging start to the weekend, and a solid sprint qualifying session overall. SQ1 went well, and in SQ2, I gave it everything, but closing the six-tenths gap to SQ3 was always going to be a challenge – I am still satisfied with the result we brought home. The windy conditions made it tricky at times, but overall, I’m happy with the progress made throughout the day. Now, the focus shifts on tomorrow, with the Sprint, first, and the main qualifying; we’ll keep pushing to make the most of every opportunity.
Isack Hadjar is 15th just ahead of Jack Doonan and Pierre Gasly.
Speaking following the action, Doohan said:
“It was clearly not the result we wanted today but I am pleased with how the car felt. In the end, a combination of factors fed into the frustrating outcome in Sprint Qualifying, particularly traffic on track during the push lap, but we will keep our heads down and aim to maximise what we can from the Sprint Race in the morning. Fortunately, I completed the majority of our run plan in Free Practice 1 before the issue on track and it was important to get up to speed at this track in F1 machinery, especially with the new track surface, which provided plenty of grip. The car felt good across the day so we will look into the data and see what we can improve tomorrow in Qualifying and hopefully put ourselves in a much better position for the Grand Prix.”
Pierre Gasly commented saying:
“It’s a frustrating outcome today and I am disappointed for the whole team with the result to be out in SQ1. The car felt good, it had pace and we just had some traffic at the start of our push lap, which cost us some lap time. These fine margins can be very costly as has been the case today. We made good progress between Free Practice 1 and SQ1 and I really feel we should be fighting for SQ3 as it is very close amongst a number of cars in the midfield. Tomorrow, we will give it everything and just try to maximise what we can. It will be hard to make progress in the Sprint Race but we will give it our best and really focus on getting it right in Qualifying when it all counts. I am confident we can put it in the mix tomorrow and we will stay positive and aim to do just that.”
Esteban Ocon rolls off 18th for the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team just ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Liam Lawson who rounds out the grid.
Speaking following the action, Lawson said:
On my second lap I went off and it is obviously a shame. I am disappointed because we started ok and it’s a shame to miss out on SQ2 for a small mistake. From a starting point it wasn’t too bad, and we were looking to build in the session from there. We stayed out to try and cool the tyres on track and to be honest, I really struggled to get the temperatures down to start my second lap. We started too hot and through the lap I struggled, it is really frustrating. Our pace was there and indicates we should be a lot further up than we are. We have tomorrow’s Sprint to try and learn some stuff and we want to do a better job in quali, to put the car where is should be.”