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Lewis Hamilton took his first pole position for Ferrari as he headed sprint qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.<\/b><\/p>\n
Hamilton beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.018 seconds as McLaren’s challenge faded around the Shanghai circuit and will start Saturday’s sprint race from the front.<\/p>\n
Oscar Piastri was third and Lando Norris, winner of the season-opening race in Australia last weekend, sixth behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ George Russell.<\/p>\n
Norris had appeared to be on target to take sprint pole with a blistering first sector time on a second run but braked to late for the hairpin at the end of the long back straight and ran wide, forcing him to abort the lap.<\/p>\n
Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli was seventh, ahead of Racing Bulls Yuki Tsunoda, Williams’ Alex Albon and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.<\/p>\n
Hamilton, who was 0.208secs quicker than Leclerc, had a difficult first race with Ferrari in Melbourne and the seven-time champion said: “I’m a bit in shock. I can’t believe we got a pole in the sprint. It’s not the main race so we have some work to do for tomorrow.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t expect that result, but so happy and so proud. The last race was a disaster for us. We knew there was more performance in the car. It came alive from lap one.”<\/p>\n
The sprint race, a shorter race about one third distance of a grand prix, is at 03:00 UK time on Saturday, with qualifying for the main race following at 07:00.<\/p>\n
McLaren will look back on sprint qualifying as an under-achievement – Piastri was 0.08secs off Hamilton’s time and Norris a massive 0.544secs behind after making errors on both his qualifying laps.<\/p>\n
Unlike Ferrari and Red Bull, McLaren went for two flying laps on their single set of tyres. Norris had a slide at Turn 13 on his first lap, followed by the error at the hairpin on his second.<\/p>\n
Outside the top 10, there was a strong performance from Briton Oliver Bearman in the Haas, taking 12th place, just behind Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and six spots ahead of his experienced team-mate Esteban Ocon.<\/p>\n
And Liam Lawson’s agonising start to his Red Bull career continued as the New Zealander qualified last, complaining that he could not get his tyres to work.<\/p>\n
More to follow<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n