CHINESE GP – Max Verstappen beats Sergio Perez by three tenths to pole as Lewis Hamilton knocked out in Q1
Max Verstappen looked unstoppable as he beat his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez by three tenths to take pole for the Chinese Grand Prix. Verstappen who had won the first sprint earlier in the day looked on his best form, while runner-up in the sprint Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in Q1.
The Dutchman extended his run of five poles in five races as he ploughed a lonely furrow in pursuit of pole position, particularly as nobody had been able to beat his opening 33.977 time in Q3, before finding over three and a quarter tenths to secure pole.
Red Bull looked in a world of their own all day, even though Perez came close to being knocked out at the end of the first session after being caught up with traffic.
Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin third as he improved on his final attempt to go over a tenth and a half behind Perez. But it looked at one stage during the final part of qualifying that the Spaniard could have challenged for the front row.
Alonso beat sprint pole sitter Lando Norris, who took pole in the wet for the sprint, by nearly two hundredths. That was just one of several surprises during qualifying, Aston Martin has appeared this season not to match Ferrari or McLaren with Mercedes looking to have a slim edge.
Alonso had run third for much of the sprint before damage from a collision with Sainz forced his retirement, but he made amends with a strong performance in qualifying for the Grand Prix.
Verstappen said: “I think after the sprint race it gave us a few more ideas about the car and I think the car worked even better in qualifying now, so definitely very happy with how qualifying went, the car was really nice to drive. That final lap in Q3 felt really decent and also very happy to drive here as well in the dry, the conditions were pretty good and it was a lot of fun.”
Perez, who finished second in qualifying: “It was very intense. I nearly got knocked out in Q1 because of traffic. I just made it through. Q2 I could get some rhythm into the balance, unfortunately in the end it was just not enough to get Max but overall a tremendous result.”
Alonso said: “I had a moment in Turns One and Two and I was thinking about whether to abort or not, but we kept going and I set a good lap time. The car improved since this morning and we made a few changes.”
Norris beating his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri by over a tenth, as Ferrari’s difficult weekend continued with Charles Leclerc going nearly seven-tenths behind Verstappen and ahead of teammate Sainz by eight thousandths.
The Spaniard had run third for much of the sprint before damage from a collision with Sainz forced his retirement, but he made amends with a strong performance in qualifying for the grand prix. Ferrari looked to be Red Bull’s closest challenger, but three-tenths off, which opened the door for both McLaren’s and Alonso to go faster.
Speaking about the crash, Sainz said, “I just did a simple mistake, hit the inside kerb a bit too hard, that threw me a bit off line, touched the gravel on the exit, clipped the gravel and spun. Then right in the last moment before hitting the wall I managed to turn the wheel a bit and crash in a better angle than what I was.”
It’s been a difficult weekend for Ferrari they have struggled to unlock the performance this weekend, but it could have been worse as Sainz was lucky to continue after he crashed at the start of Q2. But despite touching the gravel and spinning off into the wall he limped back around to the pits.
Aston Martin later lodged a protest with the stewards about Sainz stopping and bringing out the red flag over Article 39.6 of the F1 sporting regulations, which states: “Any driver whose car stops on the track during the qualifying session or the sprint qualifying session shootout will not be permitted to take any further part in that session.”
The FIA race control messages stated that Sainz had stopped on track during the red flag period, before he was able to fire up his Ferrari and return to the pits. The regulation is designed to stop drivers getting assistance from marshals or recovery vehicles to potentially rejoin the session under a red flag, but doesn’t cover the eventuality of a driver being able to continue under their own power.
This would appear to be to get Lance Stroll tenth after he missed out on Q3 by seven tenths.
George Russell put his Mercedes eighth a tenth and a quarter behind Sainz, Nico Hulkenberg and Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas completed the top ten. Mercedes has looked off the pace all weekend, but the biggest shock was six-time pole sitter Lewis Hamilton being knocked out in Q1 leaving him eighteenth.
Hamilton proved to be the biggest elimination in Q1 in a frantic end saw as the magnitude of track evolution had been considerable, although the seven-time champion could not benefit after a lock-up at Turn Fourteen.
He was twelfth at the time, and should have improved, but as the times came in with everyone improving he was pushed out of qualifying. Hamilton missing out on Q2 for the first time since 2022 by just over a tenth.
Under pressure Daniel Ricciardo had his best performance of the season in eleventh, after the team changed his chassis in an attempt to find a solution to the Australian’s struggles so far this season.
Esteban Ocon was nearly three-tenths behind the RB as Alex Albon spilt both the Alpine’s. The British-Thai driver nearly two hundredths behind Ocon and comfortably ahead of Pierre Gasly, both Alpine’s had been knocked out in SQ1 on Friday.
Guanyu Zhou will start his first home race from sixteenth after he was knocked out by Gasly who went three-tenths faster at the end of Q1. The Shanghai-Sheffielder appeared to struggle to find grip in the first part of qualifying but was a hundredth faster than Kevin Magnussen.
Magnussen was six hundredths faster than Yuki Tsunoda, with Logan Sargeant rounding out the field.