Written by Meghana Sree
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri sought redemption after last week and stormed to pole in a busy Chinese Grand Prix Qualifying session. He lines up next to George Russell, with his teammate Lando Norris starting on the second row next to Max Verstappen.
Judging from Sprint qualifying, the Grand Prix’s qualifying was highly predicted to be an extremely tight affair and it more than delivered.
The pace was set early by the McLaren pair, Piastri throwing down the gauntlet with a rapid 1:31.591. As the seconds ticked down, several laps were slotted on the board, but Norris’ was soon deleted for track limits at Turn 9.
Four minutes into the session, Alpine’s Jack Doohan took an escapade off the racing line after a spin. Both Alpines were facing trouble, and failed to make it to Q2.
The big name who dropped out along with the Alpines, Gabriel Bortoleto and Ollie Bearman was Liam Lawson who was struggling to put a competitive lap together all throughout the session. Yet another disappointing qualifying sees him line up 20th for tomorrow’s race.
On the other side of the field, the dark horses of today were the Racing Bulls pair. Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar both made it to Q3 and were firmly in the mix for the top five. Hadjar impressively outqualified Tsunoda, and finished in seventh, four tenths behind Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc is also one amongst those having a rough weekend so far, with the Ferrari driver complaining about a lack of comfort within the car’s set-up. He has been off Lewis Hamilton’s pace since the get-go and qualified behind his teammate.
Hamilton for his part was locked in this morning, with smooth laps and a flawless Sprint victory, but the performance slipped away from him in the afternoon. Ferrari will be keen to regain ground come Sunday.
Another team with work to do is Aston Martin, with both cars exiting in Q2, after narrowly missing out on points in the Sprint. They will be joined on the grid by Carlos Sainz in 15th, who couldn’t match the performance of Alex Albon up in tenth — still acclimatising himself to his new team.
Qualifying ended with Piastri breaking the lap time record set by Hamilton just yesterday, with a new fastest time of 1:30.641. The resurfaced track is grippier than ever, allowing for rapid laps around the Shanghai International Circuit.
Happy with his performance, Piastri said: "Q3 just found a lot of pace, Q1 and Q2 I was genuinely struggling. The car came alive in Q3 and I came alive in Q3. I'm just pumped to be on pole, I'm very happy. I'll take the fastest lap of Shanghai!
"I just have to make sure I keep that clean air but I was pretty happy after the Sprint, so I feel like we learned a lot and looking forward to putting that into use tomorrow."
Catch the Grand Prix tomorrow at 7:00am GMT, with everything to play for.
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