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A great performance from Piastri puts him on pole. Here’s our report from the session and the grid for the grand prix.
Russell grabs second! A lap from nowhere for the Mercedes driver breaks up the McLaren front row.
Verstappen and Norris both set 23.9s in the first sector but both lose time in the middle of the lap. Verstappen crosses the line and does not improve his time. Norris pits, Hamilton doesn’t improve but Piastri does, it’s a 1’30.641 and surely that’s going to be pole.
Racing Bulls wave Hadjar out directly into the path of Verstappen in what looks like a clear ‘unsafe release’.
Norris falls short of Piastri by nine hundredths of a second but it’s a McLaren front row for now. Russell did two preparation laps and sets a 1’30.984 for fifth, splitting the Ferraris.
Piastri beats Vertappen by two tenths of a second to go quickest, Hamilton is a mere two thousandths of a second off the Red Bull, Leclerc goes fourth behind him.
Verstappen sets a 1’30.925 which is slower than Norris managed in the previous session. The Racing Bulls form up behind him.
Q3 begins and Russell immediately passes Verstappen as they emerge from the pits. Trying to interfere with his tyre preparation?
No – the Aston Martin drivers and Carlos Sainz Jnr fail to move up. They drop out, Hulkenberg falls into the drop zone and Ocon is gone too. Hadjar pulls himself out of the drop zone and gets into Q3 and he was faster than Tsunoda.
Hamilton finds a significant improvement in the middle of the lap but it’s only good enough for sixth place. Leclerc beats that but could the Ferraris be vulnerable with those times?
Verstappen goes third, Russell is fourth and Tsunoda again a strong fifth for Racing Bulls. Drop zone with five minutes to go: Stroll, Ocon, Hadjar, Alonso and Sainz. Impressively, Hulkenberg is 10th – he’ll be doing well if he can get the Sauber into Q3.
Russell sets a 1’31.307 to head the times but the McLarens look a bit sharper. Oscar Piastri beats it by a tenth of a second and Norris takes nearly half a second off that, lighting up all three sectors.
Q2 is go and all 15 cars have headed out.
It’s happened again for Lawson – he’s not just out in Q1, he’s last. Only 1.191 seconds off the pace, but that’s how close the field is these days. Also out: Gasly, Bearman, Doohan and Bortoleto.
Hadjar bats Tsunoda, then Norris beats both of them. Bortoleto drops outs.
Alonso gets up to sixth. Leclerc finds time and goes up from 14th to second. Tsunoda goes fastest with the best time in the middle sector.
Norris goes fastest again in the first sector.
Russell is told “we do need this next lap.” He’s 10th at the moment.
Lawson has been cleared following that investigation. Lots more cars heading out.
Drop zone with three minutes: Ocon, Gasly, Sainz, Lawson, Doohan.
Lawson is under investigation for failing to slow under yellow flags.
Norris goes fastest of all in the first sector, he’s two-tenths off his team mate in the middle of the lap and loses a bit of time in the final sector but goes sixth.
Nico Hulkenberg has got up to seventh. He’s threatened to produce some good qualifying performance before, will he finally get one today?
Norris heads out to start a lap. Liam Lawson gets his first time in with seven minutes left but he’s only 15th.
Isack Hadjar improves to fourth place. Fernando Alonso slots in behind him in fifth.
A very tidy lap by Verstappen, not pushing too hard in the opening sectors, fastest of all at the end of the lap, he goes top with a 1’31.424.
Norris’s best time has now been deleted for a track limits violation. He did a 1’32.036. He heads into the pits with 10 minutes left and is directed to the weigh bridge.
Charles Leclerc, who admits this is not one of his strongest circuits, locks up and runs wide at the turn 14 hairpin.
Lando Norris briefly goes fastest but that’s beaten in turn by Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri.
Sainz only manages third behind the Saubers – and then the Haas pair beat his time. Pierre Gasly goes quickest but his team mate Jack Doohan just had a quick spin.
Carlos Sainz Jnr, who gave up racing during the sprint race and made a pit stop to test a set-up change, begins a lap in the Williams.
Qualifying has begun. Lance Stroll leads the field out followed by the Saubers and Fernando Alonso.
We’ve got a big queue at the pit exit light already – almost the whole field. Max Verstappen is not among them, however.
Will Lewis Hamilton make it two pole positions in as many days? He beat Max Verstappen by less than two hundredths of a second yesterday. But the real threat is McLaren, who under-performed in sprint race qualifying and deserve to be considered favourites for pole position.
As the sprint race earlier today showed, running up at the front and getting out of the dirty air is vitally important, so securing a strong starting position will be crucial.
Qualifying for the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix is coming up next.
2025 Chinese Grand Prix
- Hadjar ends Tsunoda’s nine-race run of out-qualifying his team mate: Qualifying data
- Piastri was “genuinely struggling” in qualifying before clinching first pole
- 2025 Chinese Grand Prix grid
- Piastri claims first pole position as Russell denies McLaren a one-two
- As it happened: 2025 Chinese Grand Prix qualifying
