Lewis Hamilton beats Verstappen as McLaren disappoints in China
Lewis Hamilton will start the sprint race in P1 after topping the Sprint qualifying session with a 1:30.849. Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri rounded off the top three. Read the full report of the session below.
SQ3
As the last part of the session got underway, it was Piastri who pipped teammate Norris by 4 tenths, with Russell beating Norris and taking up provisional P2 next to the Australian, and Antonelli wrestled his W16 in the first right hander giving up valuable lap time and taking up P4 momentarily. Lewis Hamilton then stormed to the top of the timesheets beating Piastri by less than a tenth, as teammate Leclerc could only manage P3.
In his second attempt it wasn't enough for Piastri as it was only enough for P2. Max Verstappen then brought his RB21 up to P2 to line up next to Hamilton for tomorrow's sprint race.
SQ2
The Stewards looked at a potential incident where George Russell allegedly impeded Yuki Tsunoda, however as the SQ1 got underway, the investigation was dismissed. Norris came out of the blocks with a flyer, setting each sector a-blaze to come to the line with a 1:31.1, 4 tenths quicker than Max Verstappen’s 1:31.5. Charles Leclerc, like Gabriel Bortoleto, struggled for grip, and Russell struggled for pace with a 1:32.1, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli eeking out his teammate by a tenth and taking P4 in the process ahead of both Ferrari drivers, and his Mercedes teammate.
Both Racing Bulls drivers, as well as the Aston Martin pair and Bearman saved their push laps for the end of the session, which turned out well for them with Tsunoda taking P4, only to be pipped by Stroll later as Leclerc improved only to P5, before he was surprisingly beaten by Alex Albon in his Williams beating Sainz again, who did not see SQ3. Antonelli then improved to P4 and teammate Russell moved up to P2
Eliminated: Alonso, Bearman, Sainz, Bortoleto, Hadjar
SQ1
As the session started, Gabriel Bortoleto took P1, however, the times quickly tumbled with the Brazilian from Sauber being beaten to the top by Oliver Bearman, Yuki Tsunoda, Jack Doohan, Pierre Gasly, Isaac Hadjar and Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton then stormed to the top with a 1:32.229, closely followed by his Scuderia teammate, Charles Leclerc, just 10 one thousandths of a second from his teammate.
Lando Norris then came in behind both Ferrari drivers, but his teammate Oscar Piastri went faster by half a second, as out of nowhere, Fernando Alonso beat everyone but McLaren’s Australian driver as he took P2. Norris and Antonelli improved to P1 and P3 respectively. Nico Hulkenberg was again beaten by rookie teammate Bortoleto as Liam Lawson got eliminated in SQ1.
Eliminated: Doohan, Gasly, Ocon, Hulkenberg, Lawson
Hamilton and Max sharing the front row? Hmm... broings back memories from a few years ago. Havent seen this for a long time now ....
Ahh another dig, couldn't bring yourself to say anything positive I see....
Not bad for the driver you said is on the decline due to his age ?. So what does that say when the old guy gets pole and beats his teamate ?
Yeah that old guy that should retire whooping your messiah eh Mech !
It will be a great fight tomorrow between Hamilton and Verstappe at the start...
That's better, my man Lewis!! ??. Shows what he can do when he's properly focused!
Awesome lap. Now he just needs to keep Max out of his head for the rest of the weekend, grab another pole tomorrow and finish the weekend with a couple of wins ??
Nice to see that Lewis still has it! Hope he can keep it up the entire weekend. Ferrari is looking good.
Max showing he's going to be up there, regardless of the track or conditions.
Plenty of reason to set my alarm at 4AM!
Nice to see Lewis excited and energized.
This season has a lot to look forward to.
Is the FIA regulation affecting McLaren more?
They didn't look quite the same. Too early to tell though.
Hard to say at this stage. Norris's cars rear was loose and would be more so with mini-DRS at play. So I think it hasn't effected them too much, Norris had a bad run. 0.1 separates the top 3.
Mclaren has said that they didn t make any change at the wing..
Well done Lewis. I enjoyed that. Old school.
What a great front row.
Unexpected front row huh?
Figured it would be a McLaren 1-2 for sure.
But yeah, amazing laps from Lewis and Max.
Great drive by Lewis and Max !!! But it remains to be seen how can they keep the roaring McLaren's behind them in the sprint.
Agreed. McLaren will be strong in the race. And those long DRS zones too...
Ferrari looking strong, amazing lap by Lewis especially him beating Leclerc, I still can't figure out where Red Bull stands.
Expected more from McLaren, but with the tire wear it will probably an interesting sprint race.
For Red Bull at the moment, you can only look at Max as Lawson just can't get anywhere with it.
Dunno how their race pace will be but if McLaren don't make adjustments for tomorrow then it's a Max or Lewis win possibly, assuming they both stay on track.
I guess the race pace of the McLaren will be better, their tire management was insane last week, only reason Max was close last race was because of floor damage an saftey cars.
Not sure where Ferrari is, last race was not a good reflection on their car.
And like you said, same can be told about Max, we need to see Lawson preform to more knowledge about the Red Bull.
Mercedes is also not showing a lot of strength yet.
I think tomorrow it will be p1 for McLaren, and the rest will either be another McLaren or Lewis and Max.
McLaren's tyre management was good, but it was wet and cooler conditions.
Let's see if we get full dry running if they can maintain that.
Yeh Ferrari's didn't manage very well in Australia, but they seem a little better in China. Australia is never a good indication of much really, especially when it rains. :)
Max will always do well in the RB, so right now he is Red Bull's only guide as to where the car is and how to change it for future races.
Russell did well for Merc in the quali. He was 2nd in SQ2 wasn't he?
Now he's 0.5s off pole with Andrea about 0.9s off. Hotter weather affecting the Merc again perhaps.
The race will be interesting for sure and McLaren have work to do to get to the front, particularly Norris back in 6th.
Hopefully no dramas tomorow and we have an enjoyable race.
There are many who don't believe I can't be civil despite that I've stated many times that I can if others are civil.
Don't worry, I won't let the trolls affect how I treat civil people. A lot of them are ignored anyway.
Let's see how the season pans out on here and if people can behave.
Let's keep it both clean, ignore all the idiots, I see those annoying trolls targeting you, but let's both not offend the decent people and be offended when there is the ignore button.
Have fun this season!
Yeah it will be a challenge for Norris, let's see how he will cope. I hope that the speed advantage of the McLaren is not too big, so there will be no easy DRS overtakes but exciting wheel to wheel battles. Based on quali the fields looks pretty close together, so high hopes.
It will and that's why I'm hoping Norris can pull away in the points early so that Mclaren will give him priority. He will need it.
It's not impossible for Max to be leading the championship after China.
He'll get away better at the start because he's more used to the car than Lewis is, he'll lead into turn one.
Then it's up to Lando from 6th to pass a couple of cars and his team-mate and Lewis. If he can get Max too then all the better.
But if he wants to lead the championship he'll need 2nd and the fastest lap I think.
True. This will be a very interesting race, and this weekend will also be a very important one for the inter-team battles, like Norris vs Piastri. Piastri needs to deliver in the coming races, because when Norris gets to big of an advantage in the standings, that might change the dynamic in the team, regarding strategy and team orders.
Let's keep this positive and objective vibe going man.
Way more constructive and good for everyone's blood pressure, let's get back to good discussions, this can be a great and crazy season!
Quality by Lewis, great lap and new lap record as well.....
Not bad for a poor qualifier who's too old and should of retired apparently!
Beating Charles in a quali session... well well.
And Lewis only did the one run!
Even Max's best wasn't quite good enough to beat the 40 yr old Lewis in his 2nd weekend with a new team and car.
Shows that Australia with it's weather wasn't indicative of anything.
I didn't get the criticism last week, if Leclerc was miles ahead then fair enough, but both drivers and the team had a poor weekend...
Let's see if any of the critics come on and perhaps admit he's still got a bit of skill after all....
That was a great quali to watch! Excellent drive by Lewis, Congrats. Max also driven well. McLaren still within the favourites for both races with their tyre deg, so with the fast McLaren starting behind them, it promises to be a very interesting sprintrace!
Totally stupid and wrong title of the article.
I wanted to start the text with I'm so glad for Lewis, but I had to mention the title. Instead of celebrating Lewis's great drive, the narrative of the fight against Max is being pushed.
I'm so glad for Lewis, he showed that he still has a lot of speed in him, and I'm especially happy how he and Max hugged at the end.
Max and Lewis at the top, Lando makes mistakes...I'm satisfied.
There we go. I said it last season as well, give Lewis a good car and he’ll be at the front. Lewis excels in extracting that little bit extra from a good car
Second race in new car new team ? this guy is amazing and he puts on pole . With a new lap record .
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