Chinese Grand Prix 2026: Russell wins sprint pole
George Russell led teammate Kimi Antonelli as Mercedes dominated qualifying for the sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Russell was 0.289 seconds ahead of the Italian and 0.621 seconds ahead of the first non-Mercedes, world champion Lando Norris in a McLaren.
Lewis Hamilton was fourth for Ferrari, just 0.02 seconds slower than Norris, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finished fifth behind the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.
Max Verstappen of Red Bull could only secure the eighth position, trailing 1.734 seconds behind the pace and behind Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.
Haas’s Oliver Bearman was ninth, ahead of Isak Hadjar’s second Red Bull.
Russell’s pole was his second pole in six days after leading and winning pole in the season-opening race in Australia.
And the qualifying session followed the same pattern as in Melbourne – Russell was about 0.3 seconds faster than Antonelli and the fastest Ferrari was even further behind him.
Russell said, “The car has been really great all day, and the engine is performing more normally than it did in Melbourne, when you had such a big de-rate (when the engine switches into energy-recovery mode), which made it a bit challenging to drive.” The focus since Melbourne has been on improving the starts.”
Norris, who had a tough race in Melbourne, said, “I’m pleased with the result. P3 is as good as we can do at the moment; we are very happy to beat both Ferraris. A good lap puts me in a good position for tomorrow.”
Hamilton, who had practised earlier in the day, said, “Really pleased with the session. P1 was a difficult session with the spin.
We are wasting a lot of time; we have much work to do to improve power.
“Mercedes has done a fantastic job and we have to come forward and try to close the gap. The car feels great, and we can compete in the corners, but that’s what it’s like when you’re weak.
In Australia, Ferrari were much more competitive in the race, with Leclerc taking the lead from fourth on the grid at the start.
Leclerc said he had lost 0.5 seconds straight in his last race – more than the gap between him and Hamilton.
“For some reason, the Mercedes power unit gains a lot of lap time during qualifying,” he said, “but we are very close in the race.”
The big outlier was Red Bull. Hadjar qualified third in Australia but both cars were slow in Shanghai.
Verstappen crashed on his first lap in Australia after the rear brakes locked at the first corner, but he completed at least one session and was about 0.5 seconds ahead of his teammate.
But that will be no consolation for the four-time champion when the gap in front is enormous.
Verstappen said, “The whole day was very bad in terms of speed, grip, and balance; I wasted huge amounts of time in the corners, which caused other problems.”
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