Lewis Hamilton took his first pole position for Ferrari as he headed sprint qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.018 seconds as McLaren’s challenge faded around the Shanghai circuit and will start Saturday’s sprint race from the front.
Oscar Piastri was third and Lando Norris, winner of the season-opening race in Australia last weekend, sixth behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ George Russell.
Norris had appeared to be on target to take sprint pole with a blistering first-sector time on a second run but braked too late for the hairpin at the end of the long back straight and ran wide, forcing him to abort the lap.
Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli was seventh, ahead of Racing Bulls Yuki Tsunoda, Williams’ Alex Albon and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
Hamilton, who was 0.208secs quicker than Leclerc, had a difficult first race with Ferrari in Melbourne and the seven-time champion said: “I’m a bit in shock. I can’t believe we got a pole in the sprint. It’s not the main race so we have some work to do for tomorrow.
“I didn’t expect that result, but so happy and so proud. The last race was a disaster for us. We knew there was more performance in the car. It came alive from lap one.”
The sprint race, a shorter race about one third distance of a grand prix, is at 03:00 UK time on Saturday, with qualifying for the main race following at 07:00.
McLaren will look back on sprint qualifying as an under-achievement – Piastri was 0.08secs off Hamilton’s time and Norris a massive 0.544secs behind after making errors on both his qualifying laps.
Unlike Ferrari and Red Bull, McLaren went for two flying laps on their single set of tyres. Norris had a slide at Turn 13 on his first lap, followed by the error at the hairpin on his second.
Outside the top 10, there was a strong performance from Briton Oliver Bearman in the Haas, taking 12th place, just behind Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and six spots ahead of his experienced team-mate Esteban Ocon.
And Liam Lawson’s agonising start to his Red Bull career continued as the New Zealander qualified last, complaining that he could not get his tyres to work.
More to follow
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