The Friday in F1 Chinese GP sprint weekend saw an unexpected result with Lewis Hamilton on top alongside Max Verstappen, as McLaren faltered.
It was surprise at the front in F1 Chinese GP sprint weekend on Friday after Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton took pole by 0.018s over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to rekindle their rivalry. They got the opportunity after the McLaren duo faltered, especially Lando Norris who was set to take pole.
He was ahead in Sector 1 and Sector 2 on his final attempt, but made a mistake in the penultimate corner to end up only sixth after his first SQ3 lap had a mistake too. This also allowed teammate Oscar Piastri to be third, who didn’t improve enough on his second lap to push for Top 2.
Ferrari has Charles Leclerc not far off as well in fourth, but the Monegasque was left confused by the team’s call to swap positions with Hamilton on warm-up lap. It was something which hasn’t happened before as per the F1 racer winner. He wasn’t quick enough as such to take pole anyways.
Verstappen’s teammate Liam Lawson ended up last after another disaster run. He couldn’t get his tyres to run properly on his final attempt and had to abort his lap eventually. The Mercedes pair were still consistent with George Russell in fifth and Andrea Kimi Antonelli seventh.
Hamilton: “I’m just a bit gobsmacked, honestly. I’m a bit taken aback by it. I didn’t know when we would get to this position. After last weekend, it was a difficult start to the week and I came here with aggression and just wanted to go into the weekend and get the car into a really great place. I started out straightaway with a better feeling in the car and I can’t believe that we’re at the front, ahead of a McLaren which has been so fast throughout winter testing, the first race, and even today. My first sector was really, really strong, I think that’s where I made most of my improvement on that lap, but just little increments through the whole place. There’s still time to find, for sure, which I’ll try and make sure that I apply to the next Qualifying session we go out in. It’s amazing to see the number one as you stop and to be in the red car, it’s pretty incredible. I didn’t get to do a race run in Bahrain. Obviously we did the race last weekend in the wet, but tomorrow will be kind of my first real long-ish run and Sunday will be my first proper race run in the dry with this car, so I’ll be learning. I’m hoping that we can hold onto it but I think the McLarens are very, very fast, as is Max. But we’re in a good position, we’ll stay positive, we’ll keep our heads high and keep pushing forwards.”
Verstappen: “The lap was very good, it’s always very tough when you go from a medium to a soft [tyre] to nail the lap with no references. I mean of course when you look at it, it was 18 [hundredths] off pole, but I don’t think we should have even been on the front row anyway so I’m very happy to be second. Nothing dramatic, because I don’t think the balance is massively off. We’re just too slow, I would say! But this is good for us, it’s a little motivation boost I think as well for everyone that we keep nailing the laps, keep trying to maximise everything that we’ve got, and you need to do that as well at the same time when you’re maybe struggling a little bit more for pace. It’s always very hard to say, but I was happy with what I was doing there in [Sprint] Qualifying. I think they looked very fast up until that last run, so I think it will be very hard to keep them behind, but hopefully it will be fun. We are all… I wouldn’t say close, but at least we can race a bit around. That would be nice for me.”
Norris: “I made a mistake – I locked up in the last corner. We just struggled a bit more… not quick enough, simply… struggled a lot with the car. Our difficulties that we’ve been struggling with showed a lot more today. Nothing more than that, honestly, just too many mistakes – but just too difficult of a car to drive. I think just throughout the day we’ve been struggling a bit with the front locking and struggling lot in the last corner with the tailwind. Kind of a lot more aligned with Bahrain [testing]. Just a lot windier, and when the wind’s blowing, we struggle a lot more. I think both myself and Oscar struggled more, clearly me more than him. So yeah, just pushing a bit hard to try and make up for not quite being quick enough. It’s more me rather than the car. I can’t make the car perfect, but this was me just trying to push a bit too much. I just need to back off a little bit, not try and push so much. I think the car’s still good and in a good window, maybe not good enough for pole, but we can definitely go forward.”
Russell: “It was tricky to extract the maximum from the tyres across Sprint Qualifying; one moment in SQ2 we were outside the top 10 and the next we were second, even though both laps felt similar. That shows how small the gaps were out there today, but I think P5 is probably a fair result. I was pretty happy with my lap in SQ3 and it’s not a bad place to start. It’s always tough to nail Sprint Qualifying having had so little laps on track in the only hour of practice, so we can be pleased with our efforts. Let’s see what happens tomorrow in both the Sprint and Qualifying. It was a surprise to see the McLarens struggle a little more in SQ3 and we have four different teams in the top five. We’ve definitely got the chance to move forward in the Sprint and challenge those ahead, so hopefully that is what we can do.”
Lawson: “Just the second lap, I went off. It’s obviously a shame. I think from a starting point it wasn’t too bad, the first lap was alright, and then we were just looking to build on there. But we stayed out to try to cool the tyres on track, and to be honest I really struggled to get the temps down starting the second lap. Basically we started too hot and then through the lap I just struggled. It’s frustrating. It’s obviously small things. It’s really a shame because I think honestly, we started okay in Quali. The first lap wasn’t amazing but it was relatively okay, so it’s just a shame to be out for something so sort of… yeah, frustrating.”
The Top 10 featured Visa Cash App RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, Williams’ Alexander Albon and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, whose teammates Isack Hadjar, Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso were knocked out in SQ2. The Frenchman made a mistake on his lap and helped the Japanese to make it through SQ3.
It was a quick decision, as Tsunoda reckons his SQ3 was not 100% even though he finished as the best of the rest. Even Albon wasn’t too pleased despite making inside the Top 10, when teammate Sainz struggled all-through for balance in only his second weekend with the F1 team.
Both Stroll and Alonso were happy how their day went through, even though the Spaniard didn’t make it inside the Top 10. Haas’ Oliver Bearman and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto were pleased with their SQ2 run, especially the former after his crashes in Australia and shortcomings of their car.
Both Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg were happy for their teammates, but couldn’t understand the gap and how they missed out in SQ2. Both Alpine drivers were out in SQ1 as well, as Pierre Gasly made a mistake on his final lap, while Jack Doohan only missed out by handful.
Tsunoda: “I’m happy with the result obviously and how it came out. We could have done a couple of things better in terms of set up, it didn’t feel 100% and we weren’t able to extract the performance of the car, we’ll have to look through it, but yeah, I’m very happy. It was a shame for Isack, but at the same time he gave a nice tow to me in SQ2, that helped, so thank you to him, it was a good team effort. Let’s see tomorrow!”
Stroll: “Sprint Qualifying was a strong session for us today, and I’m happy to have made it to SQ3. We decided to run used softs throughout SQ3 to save tyres for Qualifying tomorrow, so it’s still hard to gauge how we compare to those around us, especially with how tight the midfield is. We will continue to look at how we can improve for the rest of the weekend.”
Bearman: “I’m happy with the feeling underneath me today. From the first lap in FP1 I knew it would be a bit of a better weekend than we had in Melbourne. I felt comfortable with the car straight away, which is always a nice start to the weekend – and we managed to show a bit of pace out there today. I was still building up to the track, there’s quite a few long unique corners at this track which are tough to get your head around in such a short time. There’s definitely more time to be found, I think we could have had SQ3 in the car today.”
Bortoleto: “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.”
Sainz: “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.”
Doohan: “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.”
Here’s how F1 Chinese GP sprint quali panned out
