CHINESE GP – Oscar Piastri beats George Russell to Grand Prix pole by eight hundredths in fluctuating conditions
Oscar Piastri has beaten George Russell by eight hundredths to take a maiden Grand Prix pole at the Chinese Grand Prix. The McLaren driver looked like the driver to beat with both his laps in Q3 setting a 30.641 and looked on form-taking pole despite the gusty conditions in Shanghai.
Piastri’s two previous poles had been in the sprint format, his second run put him ahead of Russell after McLaren teammate Lando Norris aborted his final run after he made a mistake in the middle sector.
That left Norris seven hundredths behind Russell who snuck ahead on his final attempt, and Norris aborting his final run. Piastri improved by just under six hundredths, despite admitting after the session he was struggling with the balance of his McLaren.
Piastri will be hoping to close the gap further on Norris after a spin last weekend saw him drop down the order and allowed his teammate to open almost a race wins advantage in the championship, but he closed the gap by six points in the sprint. Russell’s lap came from nowhere.
In the fluctuating conditions, improvement was hard to find for all the drivers on their second runs, but Piastri produced a stunning final sector to find a further six-hundredths of a second and deliver an improvement and edge out Norris and Russell.
Piastri said: ” It means a lot Q3, (I) just found a lot of pace, Q1 and Q2 I was genuinely struggling but the car came alive in Q3 and I think I did, too, the laps were a little bit scruffy. I’m just pumped to be on pole. First lap was better than second lap, lost a couple of 10ths and then I thought: ‘Why not send it into the hairpin?’ And gained those 0.2secs back and found a bit more for the final corner.
Russell said he was surprised to split the McLarens saying “One of the hardest qualifying sessions I’ve done in a long time. I was trying all sorts in my prep with the tyres and nothing seemed to be clicking. I tried something completely different on the last lap and it made all the difference.
Norris, said: “Oscar deserves it. He has done a very good job this weekend. It’s his first pole, and that’s always nice. Just a couple of mistakes from me, but felt a lot more comfortable for the car, a much better direction we’re going in, not too disappointed.”
McLaren had been expected to dominate in China after a strong opening weekend in Melbourne, which saw Norris win and Piastri only miss out on second as a result of a spin in the challenging wet conditions. But Lewis Hamilton’s maiden Ferrari pole and victory in the sprint, suggests talk of a McLaren-dominated season might be misguided.
It was a brilliant lap from Russell with Mercedes not looking to have that little bit more on the final runs in sprint qualifying, it may have been helped by Norris’ “couple of mistakes,” up until that point he had topped the times in Q1 and Q2.
Max Verstappen was over a tenth ahead of Hamilton, the Ferrari driver took his first win for Ferrari and his seventh in Shanghai earlier in the sprint, but was unable to find the same pace to challenge for pole like on Friday.
Hamilton was nearly three tenths off Piastri’s pole time as he was nearly a tenth faster than Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc. the top six being covered by half a second, but Hamilton looked to struggle to refine the form in sprint qualifying and the dominance he had once teams adjusted setups.
He admitted the set-up changes had not improved its behaviour. Hamilton said, “We made some changes. But nothing major but the car was really hard to drive. It wasn’t hugging the road. I don’t know how that will affect the pace for tomorrow. Everyone showed today it was really difficult to follow.”
After crashing out of his debut race in Melbourne it was a perfect bounce back for Isack Hadjar, the French-Algerian going half a tenth behind Leclerc as he put himself three hundredths ahead. Hadjar put himself half a second ahead of the second Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli who was eight-hundredths ahead of the second Racing Bull of Yuki Tsunoda, with Alex Albon completing the top ten.
Esteban Ocon missed out on the top ten by three hundredths, as he put his Haas seven thousandths ahead of Nico Hulkenberg. Fernando Alonso put himself on his final attempt just under a tenth ahead of his Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll, who spilt the Spaniards going half a tenth ahead of Carlos Sainz.
Sainz has admitted he is still getting to grips and build confidence in the Williams. Pierre Gasly was fastest of those knocked out in Q1, the Alpine missing out by seven hundredths but was two hundredths faster than Ollie Bearman. Bearman put himself between the Frenchman and his teammate Gabriel Bortoletto after going half a tenth faster than the Sauber.
Liam Lawson’s nightmare start to his first full season and at Red Bull continued, he was last. But his preparation for his last attempt was compromised when Gasly overtook him on the preparation lap, the lack of performance once he was up and running was still consistent with his struggles so far as a Red Bull driver.
Related
- Chinese GP – Sprint Result
- CHINESE GP – Lewis Hamilton takes debut win for Ferrari beating Oscar Piastri by six seconds in the sprint
- Chinese GP – Sprint Qualifying Result
- CHINESE GP – Lewis Hamilton beats Max Verstappen by two hundredths to take first Ferrari pole in sprint qualifying
- CHINESE GP – Lando Norris fastest by half a second from Charles Leclerc in practice
- Welcome to the Chinese Grand Prix
- PRIXVIEW – Chinese Grand Prix