This session has finished. No further updates will be posted.
That wraps up our coverage of sprint race qualifying – find our report here, more to come soon.
Verstappen goes second, he falls short of Hamilton by 0.018 seconds. The Ferrari driver takes pole position for the sprint race.
Leclerc pops into second. Piastri can’t improve his time and Norris has pitted. Verstappen up next.
Hamilton sets a 1’30.849 and goes fastest.
Hamilton opens his lap strongly with the fastest time in the first sector. Norris beats it, however, by two tenths of a second.
Russell splits the McLarens with a lap for second place.
SQ3 is go, Piastri produces a 1’30.929 on softs. What’s Norris got? he’s four tenths of a second down in second place.
An interesting message to Leclerc in that session:
Bozzi: “And can we swap the cars, please?”
Leclerc: “Swap the cars now?”
Bozzi: “Yes please.”
Leclerc: “I’ll do it but we’ve never done that.”
Out in SQ2: Alonso, Bearman, Sainz, Bortoleto and Hadjar.
Antonelli gets up into ninth, Bearman is out. Russell joins his team mate with a lap which puts him second, and that eliminates Alonso.
Sainz can’t improve any more and is out but Albon goes fifth for Williams. Both Mercedes are in the drop zone.
Tsunoda gets fourth with that, but Stroll nicks it off him moments later. Bearman gets ninth in the Haas for now.
Albon goes ninth, a tenth off Sainz. Tsunoda gets a huge tow for the second qualifying session in a row, this time off his team mate.
Isack Hadjar slithers wide in turn one and immediately backs out of his lap.
Two minutes to go, seven drivers still haven’t set times, so it’s going to be a frantic end to the session.
Piastri makes it a McLaren one-two, just under two tenths of a second between them. Antonelli up to fourth but Russell reports “tyres just aren’t working, both axles no grip.” He’s seventh.
A strong lap from Norris who produces a 1’31.174 to go fastest. That puts him three tenths of a second ahead of Verstappen, Hamilton another half a second behind in third.
The second round of qualifying has begun.
Hulkenberg is told he’s out in the first round. “What? Oh my god…”
Ocon goes 18th and he’s out. He’s eliminated along with Lawson – who is dead last – Doohan and Gasly in the Alpines, and Hulkenberg. Rookie Bortoleto has out-qualified his team mate for the second session in a row.
Hamilton goes quickest. Both Alpines have been eliminated. Bearman gets his Haas up to ninth but Ocon needs to improve.
Sainz goes ninth, Stroll falls into the drop zone but he improves and that eliminated Lawson, who is in the pits.
A tidy lap by Doohan moves him up to eighth.
Tsunoda is unhappy with Russell, whom he says held him up at the end of the lap.
Russell finally does a proper lap and goes sixth. That leaves Tsunoda, Sainz, Bearman, Bortoleto and Ocon in the drop zone. Lawson has made it into the top 10 in the Red Bull.
A surprise lap from Fernando Alonso pops the Aston Martin driver into second place.
Norris loses time in the final sector and goes third. Then Oscar Piastri shows what he could have done – a 1’31.723 puts him fastest by half a second.
Antonelli drops a wheel into the gravel trap at the exit of the final corner, which was added last year, and goes third – until Leclerc improves ahead of him. But it’s wLewis Hamilton who’s fastest so far, 1’32.229.
A 1’32.329 for Verstappen which is already nine tenths of a second quicker than he went earlier on the medium rubber.
All 20 cars are out on the track. Gabriel Bortoleto sets the ball rolling with a 1’33.693 and already there’s just eight minutes left in this very compressed session.
Jack Doohan has joined the track. He was badly disadvantaged earlier on as he suffered a technical problem in practice and therefore was unable to do a run on the soft tyres.
It’s still sunny in Shanghai, the track temperature is 38C, just one degree higher than in the sole practice session. Mercedes weren’t that competitive on the soft tyres in practice, but that won’t matter at the start of this session as drivers are required to use the medium rubber for SQ1 and SQ2.
We’ve got the usual queue of drivers lined up at the pit lane exit ready for the start of the sprint race qualifying session. The pit lane exit light turns green and the Mercedes drivers lead the field out, Andrea Kimi Antonelli followed by George Russell.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner declares McLaren “odds-on favourites for pole”, and though he does play a strong expectations management game, Lando Norris was comfortably ahead in practice this morning. That said, Max Verstappen abandoned his only lap on soft tyres, and Liam Lawson has continued to struggle, so Red Bull’s true pace this weekend is a complete unknown.
One of the rookies managed to out-pace their team mate in the sole practice session earlier today: Oliver Bearman pipped Esteban Ocon by 0.089 seconds. Will he repeat that when it matters? The Haas cars also looked in slightly better shape than they were in Melbourne.
We’ve had our second power unit change of the season since practice – Racing Bulls have swapped Yuki Tsunoda’s motor.
Sprint race qualifying at the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix is coming up next.
2025 Chinese Grand Prix
- “Too slow” Red Bull shouldn’t be on the front row – Verstappen
- Hamilton pips Verstappen to take pole for Ferrari in Shanghai sprint race
- 2025 Chinese Grand Prix Grand Prix sprint race grid
- As it happened: 2025 Chinese Grand Prix sprint race qualifying
- Norris well ahead in sole practice session at Shanghai, Verstappen 16th
