George Russell takes sprint pole in Mercedes 1-2 – Charm

George Russell has taken pole for the sprint race of Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix, leading team-mate Kimi Antonelli for a Mercedes 1-2.

Like he did in Melbourne, Russell was fastest in all three qualifying segments at Shanghai; Mercedes outpaced rivals McLaren and Ferrari, with Max Verstappen down in eighth for Red Bull.

Russell set the tone by topping Q1 in 1m33.030s, leading the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. The second Mercedes was four tenths off, with the McLarens nearly eight tenths adrift.

Verstappen was only 11th then, complaining about his RB22’s “horrendous” driveability, followed by Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto, who both made it through despite excursions in the gravel trap at the exit of the last corner.

A lock-up at Turn 11 and lap time improvements at Alpine meant Alex Albon was eliminated alongside team-mate Carlos Sainz, the Aston Martins and Valtteri Bottas’ Cadillac, nearly two seconds slower than Fernando Alonso. Sergio Perez was unable to partake in the session due to a fuel system issue, after a similar gremlin took Bottas out of the Australian GP.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

The Silver Arrows were last to take to the track in Q2 but rose to the top straight away, with Russell in 1m32.241s and Antonelli in 1m32.570s – but the Italian seemingly blocked Lando Norris in Turn 1. Other than Leclerc in 1m32.602s, nobody was fewer than nine tenths away from the lead Mercedes.

As Antonelli improved to a 1m32.291s, Verstappen went wide in the final corner; the Red Bull very narrowly emerged out of Q2, with the Dutchman 0.071s quicker than 11th-placed Nico Hulkenberg while his team-mate Isack Hadjar was just 0.015s ahead of the Audi.

Both Audis and Racing Bulls were eliminated, alongside Esteban Ocon and Franco Colapinto, whose team-mates Bearman and Pierre Gasly outpaced the Red Bulls on their way to Q3.

Russell’s first Q3 benchmark was a 1m31.520s, outpacing Antonelli, Hamilton, Leclerc and Verstappen by 0.36s, 0.64s, 1.21s and 1.73s respectively. The other five cars, including the McLarens and Hadjar, remained in the garage until the last possible moment.

Antonelli improved by 0.07s on his second attempt; so did Leclerc by 0.20s, but it wasn’t enough to match their respective British team-mates. Norris climbed to third, narrowly beating Hamilton and Oscar Piastri. Verstappen and Hadjar qualified down in eighth and 10th, with Gasly a convincing seventh.