Antonelli lands historic F1 pole after Russell hits trouble in China
Kimi Antonelli beat Mercedes team-mate George Russell to pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli took advantage of issues that hit Mercedes team-mate George Russell to claim the first pole position of his F1 career at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Russell, the red-hot favourite for pole and championship leader, was plagued by problems in Q3 after first reporting an issue with his front wing, before stopping on track when he headed out for the start of the season.
Mercedes managed to get Russell out for one timed-lap right at the end, but the Briton couldn’t usurp his team-mate with a lap that was 0.222 seconds away.
19-year-old Antonelli capitalised on Russell’s issues to secure his maiden grand prix pole and become F1’s youngest-ever polesitter in the process, beating Sebastian Vettel’s previous record from 2008.
Lewis Hamilton beat Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc to third place, with the seven-time world champion falling 0.351s adrift of Antonelli’s pole time.
The McLarens locked out row three with Oscar Piastri outpacing reigning world champion Lando Norris to grab fifth, while Pierre Gasly put in another superb qualifying lap to claim P7 in his Alpine.
Four-time world champion Max Verstappen was nearly a second off the pace as he ended up eighth, ahead of Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar and Ollie Bearman, who competed the top-10 for Haas.
There was a close call for Hadjar in Q2 as Red Bull’s latest new driver just squeaked through into the top-10, with Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg missing out on Q3 by just 0.002s.
Franco Colapinto also came agonisingly close to joining his Alpine team-mate in Q3 but ended up 0.005s shy on his way to 12th. Next up came Esteban Ocon’s Haas in 13th, ahead of the Racing Bulls pair of Liam Lawson and F1 rookie Arvid Lindblad in 14th and 15th.
Gabriel Bortoleto was only 16th after the Audi driver spun out at the final corner on his second flying lap of Q2, bringing out double waved yellows that impacted several drivers’ last runs.
For the second day running, Williams failed to get out of the first part of qualifying, with Carlos Sainz only able to set a time good enough for 17th ahead of team-mate Alex Albon, who described his FW48 as “terrible”.
Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso was two seconds of the pace in Q1 as he ended up 19th for the struggling Aston Martin, while Valtteri Bottas beat Lance Stroll as Cadillac out-qualified a rival team for the first time in its fledgling F1 history.
Sergio Perez was slowest of all in 22nd place, nearly four seconds off the pace, in the other Cadillac.
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