Oscar Piastri took pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix with a commanding drive in Shanghai for McLaren, after Lewis Hamilton had taken his first victory for Ferrari in the sprint race on Saturday morning.
Piastri, scoring his first ever Formula One pole, delivered two immense laps to take the top spot, beating the Mercedes of George Russell into second and his McLaren teammate Lando Norris into third. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was in fourth and Hamilton fifth. Piastri understandably celebrated his maiden pole, having put his McLaren at the very front of a race where dashing off into the clean air could prove vital on Sunday.
“When you hook it up it feels pretty mega,” said the Australian. “Hopefully the clean air will be a help, I was pretty happy after the sprint, I feel like we learned a lot this morning and are trying to put that into use tomorrow.”
After his victory in the sprint – Hamilton and Ferrari’s first win in the short format since it was introduced in 2021 – the 40-year-old hit out at critics of his progress with the Scuderia. Some claimed Hamilton had underestimated the complexities of adapting to a new team, when he finished only 10th at the season-opening GP in Australia last week.
“I really do feel as though a lot of people underestimated the steep climb of joining a new team,” he said. “The amount of critics and people I’ve heard yapping along the way, who have just clearly not understood how long it takes to acclimatise. Maybe because they never had the experience or are just unaware?
“People just love to be negative at any opportunity, even with the smallest things, they’ll just be negative about it. I see certain individuals, people that I’ve admired for years, just talking out of turn. Clearly some of them are really just making an uneducated guess about what is going on, with just a real lack of appreciation.”
On the first hot laps in qualifying Verstappen opened strongly with a run of 1min 30.925sec in what was a well hooked-up clean lap, only for Piastri to go quicker by a full two tenths with a 1min 30.703 and take provisional pole as Norris slotted in behind him just nine-hundredths back.
For the final laps, Verstappen again went out quickly but Norris and Piastri matched him. The Dutchman could not improve and Norris aborted his last hot lap, while Piastri found even more pace with a new lap record and pole in a time of 1:30.641. Russell then too found pace at the death to split the two McLarens on the front of the grid with amighty last lap.
Hamilton had won the sprint race earlier in the day with a dominant performance from pole, having led Verstappen through turn one for what was then a comfortable victory, with the British driver and the Ferrari looking entirely in control at the front throughout the 19-lap dash. It was a world away from how he had struggled with his car in Australia and had come to Shanghai with the intent to make changes that have paid off.
“I came into this weekend, straight away I said ‘these are the things that I want to start with this weekend, this is more the direction’ and I’m much happier with that,” Hamilton added.
He was challenged by Verstappen mid-race but with front tyre wear proving crucial to performance, was able to ease away from the Dutchman in the clean air. Verstappen was passed by Piastri, who had shown strong pace throughout late in the race, and Hamilton took the flag a full seven seconds clear of the Australian, with Verstappen in third.
Norris, who has serious title ambitions this year, endured a poor morning. Having started only in sixth after going wide on his final hot lap in qualifying, he compounded the mistake with an unforced error on the opening lap of the sprint going wide at turn six and dropping to ninth.
He was able to make one place back by passing Lance Stroll but it was a disappointing performance that ended with his championship lead over Verstappen reduced to just two points.
The front tyre wear, in the form of severe graining to the front-left tyres, is likely to play a major factor once more in Sunday’s race. Norris in particular struggled with his rubber. Hamilton benefited from being in clean air but both he and teammate Charles Leclerc, who finished fifth behind Russell, enjoyed somewhat less severe wear to their tyres. The Ferrari has some form at tracks where front-left graining is prevalent, with Leclerc winning with an unexpected one-stop strategy at Monza last season where it was an issue. Similarly they took a one-two in Austin, where graining played a part early in the race.
Leclerc qualified in sixth for Ferrari, Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda in seventh and ninth for RB, Kimi Antonelli in eighth for Mercedes and Alex Albon in 10th for Williams
Esteban Ocon was 11th for Haas, Nico Hülkenberg in 12 for Sauber, Fernando Alonso and Stroll 13th and 14th for Aston Martin and Carlos Sainz 15th for Williams.
Red Bull’s Liam Lawson had another very poor qualifying, finishing in 20th. Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan were in 16th and 18th for Alpine, Ollie Bearman in 17th for Haas, Gabriel Bortoleto in 19th for Sauber.