Chinese GP: Lewis Hamilton secures pole for sprint race
Lewis Hamilton will start from pole position in his first sprint race with Ferrari after beating Max Verstappen to the fastest time in Friday's sprint qualifying session at the Chinese Grand Prix. In only his second race with the Italian team, Hamilton posted a lap time of 1:30.849, edging out Verstappen by 0.018 seconds. This marks a significant turnaround for Hamilton, who finished tenth at the Australian Grand Prix, his debut race with Ferrari.
"I didn't expect that result," Hamilton admitted post-session. "But so, so happy and so proud. I think obviously the last race was a disaster for us. We knew there was more performance in the car, we just weren't able to extract it," he added. "The weather has been amazing and the car really came alive from Lap 1. I'm a bit in shock. I can't believe we got a pole in the sprint. It's obviously not the main race, so we've got work to do for tomorrow. But this puts us in good stead for the race."
Verstappen, who will start alongside Hamilton on the front row for the first time since the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2023, expressed satisfaction despite missing out on pole. "I'm very happy. When you go from the medium to the soft you have to nail the lap, with no references. Of course, when you look at it, it was 0.018 seconds, but I don't even think we should have been in the front row anyway, so I'm very happy to be second."
Oscar Piastri secured third place for McLaren, just 0.080 seconds off Hamilton's time. Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari and George Russell's Mercedes took fourth and fifth spots, respectively. Lando Norris, who made a mistake at Turn 14, will start sixth.
The remaining top ten spots went to Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon, and Lance Stroll. Fernando Alonso narrowly missed out and will start 11th, followed by Oliver Bearman's Haas. Carlos Sainz and Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto, who outqualified teammate Nico Hulkenberg, will start 13th and 14th, respectively.
Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar will start 15th after a mistake on his flying lap. Jack Doohan and Pierre Gasly from Alpines, Esteban Ocon, and Liam Lawson rounded out the grid.
Overall, Hamilton's pole position sets a promising stage for the sprint race, with several strong competitors hot on his trail.
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