Kimi Antonelli has beaten his Mercedes teammate George Russell by two tenths to take his maiden Grand Prix pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix. The Italian became the youngest pole sitter for a Grand Prix after his teammate suffered an issue during Q3, leaving him scrambling just to get the lap in.
Russell had dominated the weekend up until qualifying, taking victory by just under six tenths in the sprint, but a gearbox issue during Q2 limited him to a single run in Q3. On that final run, he put his Mercedes around a tenth and a half faster than former teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Antonelli becomes the youngest grand prix pole sitter since Sebastian Vettel at Monza in 2008, having taken sprint pole and victory in Miami last May.
Russell was going for his third pole in a week when he stopped on track, before managing to reboot his car despite shifting issues as he limped back to the pits, which opened the door for his teammate to take pole. Hamilton continued his strong weekend as he went a hundredth faster than Charles Leclerc.
Antonelli said he was “very happy” but accepted that he might well not have taken pole had Russell had a problem-free qualifying. He said: “George had an issue, so it probably could have been a different story but happy to be on pole for the first time.”
Russell described his second place as “damage limitation” after a litany of problems through qualifying. The championship leader said: “It was a crazy session. Front wing broke at the end of Q2. The team weren’t sure it had broken but I was sure it had. Then got stranded on track and just made it back out in time. It was more a case of just getting a lap done.
In Q1, Leclerc became the first driver to beat Russell in a competitive session this year with a time just under a tenth quicker than the Mercedes Briton. Then in Q2, Russell ended up third fastest behind Antonelli and Leclerc after he suffered a broken front wing, for reasons as yet unclear.
The seven-time Shanghai winner had fought hard in an attempt to take back-to-back sprint wins, and said he was hoping to challenge the Mercedes for a seventh Grand Prix win in Shanghai, which would be his first for Ferrari. Last years race winner, Oscar Piastri, put his McLaren eight hundredths behind Hamilton as he went nearly six tenths faster than teammate Lando Norris.
It was a step in the right direction for the world champions; they were closer, but Piastri was four and a half tenths off pole. Pierre Gasly continued to show pace and a step forward for Alpine, going seventh as he went a quarter of a second ahead of the two Red Bull’s, with Max Verstappen a tenth ahead of teammate Isack Hadjar.
Red Bull were lucky to get both cars into Q3, Hadjar had been shuffled down to tenth in the closing moments of Q2. Under pressure from an improving Gabriel Bortoletto, the Audi driver spun off, which brought out the yellow flag and stopped the last-minute improvements.
Ollie Bearman put his Haas tenth, with Bortoletto’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg missing out after going two thousandths slower than Hadjar at the end of Q2. But there was another driver also proving a threat, Franco Colapinto was three thousandths behind Hulkenberg. While Esteban Ocon put his Haas nearly two tenths behind.
Arvid Lindblad put his Racing Bull nearly two tenths faster than Bortoletto following the Brazilians spin on his final attempt in Q2. He ran out of time to try again.
Like in SQ1 on Friday, the same six drivers were knocked out in Q1. Carlos Sainz missed out by a tenth and three-quarters ahead of Williams teammate Alex Albon, a disappointing start to the season stemming from missing the Catlan Test, which has put them on the backfoot
Fernando Alonso was nineteenth, two tenths ahead of Valtteri Bottas, who was over half a second faster than Lance Stroll, while teammate Sergio Perez completed the field.
Related
- Sprint Results coming soon
- Sprint Report coming soon
- Chinese GP – Sprint Qualifying Result
- CHINESE GP – George Russell beats Kimi Antonelli to sprint pole by two tenths, with Mercedes retaining clear advantage
- CHINESE GP – George Russell a tenth faster than Kimi Antonelli in practice, with Mercedes having an advantage of half a second
- Welcome to the Chinese Grand Prix – 12/03/2026
- PRIXVIEW – Chinese Grand Prix
