Lewis Hamilton takes his first pole with Ferrari for the sprint race in China

Lewis Hamilton takes his first pole position with Ferrari for the first sprint race of the year. With a time of 1:30.849, the Briton will start from the front row alongside Max Verstappen.

Photo: Scuderia Ferrari

In the first part of qualifying, the eliminated drivers were Liam Lawson, who had numerous issues with his car. The Red Bull driver failed to get his tires up to temperature, which prevented him from setting a good lap. Also eliminated were Nico Hülkenberg, Esteban Ocon, and both Alpine drivers, Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan, who had struggled throughout the weekend's sessions.

In Q2, we had several surprises, with the rookies showing strong performances. Bortoleto, in his Sauber, managed to outperform his teammate, as did Bearman in his Haas. However, despite their strong performance, Fernando Alonso, Oliver Bearman, Carlos Sainz, who had numerous issues with his car, as well as Bortoleto and Isack Hadjar, were eliminated in this second part of qualifying.

In the final part of qualifying, the McLarens were looking very strong, as they had been throughout the session. However, on his second attempt, Lando Norris made a small mistake. Despite setting the best first sector, he decided to abort his fastest lap, leaving him far from the fight for pole position for tomorrow's sprint race. Ultimately, Lewis Hamilton took pole position with a time of 1:30.849 and will start from the front row alongside Max Verstappen.

Oscar Piastri will start on the second row alongside Charles Leclerc, while George Russell and Lando Norris will be on the third row. Kimi Antonelli and Yuki Tsunoda will be on the fourth row, and Alex Albon and Lance Stroll will be on the fifth row.