Formula 1 ®
No Stopping Verstappen wins the Sprint race and takes pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix with Checo along side in P2 this is Red bull’s 100th pole celebration. El Machismo super happy grabbing P3. Lewis P18
Max beat Hamilton by an impressive 13 seconds in Saturday’s sprint and he raced to a perhaps predictable pole position.
Verstappen, who is on course to take his fourth consecutive world championship, saw off team-mate Sergio Perez as Red Bull secured a front-row lockout. It also marked Red Bull’s 100th pole in F1.
Max finished 0.322 seconds clear of Perez, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso third. Lando Norris, who dropped from pole to finish sixth in the sprint race, qualified fourth ahead of Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren.
Charles Leclerc and Sainz finished sixth and seventh respectively for Ferrari, while George Russell could manage only eighth on a poor afternoon for the Silver Arrows. His best performance of the season to claim second in the sprint race. and then arguably his worst session of the season to qualify way down in 18th. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, this is Lewis Hamilton’s most confusing season. It shows no sign of ending.
Max
“It was incredibly slippery out there and I struggled a lot to get the temperature in the tyres, that’s why it was very difficult to keep the car on track. The car never really switched on for me and it was like driving on ice, which is why I think we deserved where we finished in Sprint Qualifying. It wasn’t really working for me in the wet, even though I think in the dry the car was quite good and I was quite happy with that. It doesn’t always go as planned but it’s not like you have to start on the inside here, there will be low grip for everyone due to the paint on the tarmac here and so we have to try and have the best start possible. I think it is going to be quite a long stint on one set of tyres for the Sprint but I think that that will make it quite interesting.”
Checo
“Things were looking great initially, then with the traffic and the backoff people were doing we were onto a good final lap but unfortunately, I just couldn’t do the final corner, it was so tricky to get through there and that meant I went off. That compromised being on the front row for the Sprint but I think we are in a good place this weekend. I felt confident straight away today and we ae in a good moment with the car, so in any conditions I think we can be competitive for now, which is very promising.”
Christian Horner
“Firstly, it’s great to be back in China. The Sprint Qualifying certainly proved exciting albeit in tricky conditions. Fourth and sixth to start the Sprint tomorrow is obviously not what we were aiming for but it’s a circuit that you can overtake on and therefore we know we are in the fight. The conditions on Saturday look to be a little more consistent than they were today so we are hopeful of a competitive Saturday and we will look to move up the field quickly and deliver a strong performance tomorrow in the Sprint and then in qualifying.”
Fernando
QUALIFYING P3
“I am happy with third position in Qualifying today. Both Q1 and Q2 went smoothly, and we progressed into Q3. I then nearly aborted my last lap in Q3 because I lost a few tenths in the first sector. I made back some of this lap time during the rest of the lap, so I kept going and I’m glad I did. We are again a few positions higher in Qualifying than our natural position suggests, but we will take this result and it’s always nice to finish in the top three. It will be a real fight to keep our rivals behind us for a full race distance, but let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
Lewis
To be sat on the front-row for the Sprint was a great feeling. Racing into turn one and taking the lead reminded me of what I love so much about this sport! It was a challenging race but to get second was great.
We knew Qualifying would be much more tough this afternoon though. I made some sizeable set-up changes after the Sprint to try and improve the car in the slow speed turns. It wasn’t too bad in some corners, but I struggled elsewhere. It was challenging to get the rear tyres to stop into turn 14 and that’s where I locked up on my final lap. If I hadn’t had that, I would have made it through to Q2. I’ll be giving it my best shot tomorrow. We can still have some fun even if we are starting from P18.