Lewis Hamilton Claims His First Ferrari Pole For China Sprint Race

Lewis Hamilton is the first pole-sitter of the Shanghai weekend. The Ferrari driver secured the top slot on the grid for tomorrow’s Sprint with a brilliant lap in Q3, the only segment of the session which, according to the regulations, is contested using the Soft compound tyre. The seven-time world champion stopped the clocks in 1’30”849, just 18 thousandths of a second quicker than four-time world champion, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Third, 80 thousandths down was Australia’s Oscar Piastri for McLaren, who had initially been quickest on his first run. His team-mate, Lando Norris, had been quickest in Q2, setting the best time on the Medium tyre – which must be used for the first two sessions – of 1’31”174.

As was also the case in Melbourne, there were no fewer than seven teams represented in the top ten, showing just how evenly matched they are in this early stage of the season.

This event’s only free practice session saw all the teams use just one set of Medium and one of Soft per driver, a clear indication that they plan to keep both sets of Hard for Sunday’s race. The only exception was Jack Doohan who only ran one set of Mediums.

The new track surface saw lap times drop significantly compared to last year, which was the only edition of the Chinese Grand Prix run with this current generation of car. However, Hamilton’s time was even better than the 1’31”095 set by Sebastian Vettel when he took pole in 2018.

Lewis Hamilton – P1

“It was mega! Really happy with the result. We knew there was more in the car after Australia, and here, it just came alive from lap one. The team’s done a great job since Melbourne.Pole for the Sprint Race is a great place to be, but there’s still work to do. I’ve not done a proper race run in the dry yet, so tomorrow will be a real test. The other teams will be quick, but we’re in the fight and will keep pushing.”

Max Verstappen – P2

“I’m very happy with my performance today. I think that in the first practice session we were quite a bit off so I’m really pleased with being on the front row. The lap was very good: it is always very tough to go from a medium to a soft tyre, so to nail the lap with no references was great for us. Of course, when you look at it, we were incredibly close off pole so I am very happy to be second. I don’t think we should have been on the front row and we didn’t make any dramatic changes in the set up. We kept trying to maximise everything that we had, especially when we were struggling a bit more for pace. This is good for us and a little motivation boost. The McLarens looked fast up until the last run so it will be hard to keep them behind during the Sprint but hopefully it will be fun.”

Oscar Piastri – P3

“Overall, a positive first day on track in China. SQ1 and SQ2 felt good, we just couldn’t get the pace out of the car in SQ3. It’s been challenging at times adapting to the track’s new surface, the grip’s been a lot better than last season which is nice, but it’s very peaky. It was tough to keep on top of the car at times, but the team did a good job of taming it for Sprint Quali. The pace in the car is still very strong and I’m confident I can fight for a higher finish from third in tomorrow’s Sprint.”

Simone Berra – Pirelli Chief Engineer

“We were all very keen to see how the tyres would behave on this completely new surface. We had some data prior to arriving in Shanghai and, from the measurements we then carried out here in recent days, we had noticed that the abrasion level of the track was significantly lower than last year, with a much smoother surface and fewer of the bumps that had been a feature of this track in the past.

From what we saw today, we can say that the level of grip generated on this surface is really surprising: rarely have we witnessed such a significant improvement in times – with the same car technical regulations – as we did today. Hamilton’s time is over five seconds quicker than the best time from last year’s Sprint Qualifying, which becomes 4”873 when comparing it with the same compound. It was even faster than Vettel’s pole lap from seven years ago when the cars were completely different, being 66 kilos. Given that the track is still evolving, it’s possible times will drop even more tomorrow! Furthermore, we must bear in mind that the lack of bumps meant the teams were able to lower the ride height of the cars, thus gaining even more performance.

With only 60 minutes of free practice, the teams weren’t able to do any significant long runs with race fuel loads, which is always the case on a Sprint weekend. We saw significant graining on the front left tyre, leading to degradation in terms of performance, but without it having much impact on wear. In terms of lap times, the degradation on the Medium and Soft seems quite high (between two and three tenths) which is one reason why all teams decided to keep both sets of Hards, almost certainly for Sunday afternoon.

Tomorrow’s Sprint will be a great opportunity for everyone to do a real long run, thus providing a clearer picture in terms of race strategy, even if the fuel load will not be as much as the one needed to start the Grand Prix. On paper, the most likely choice for the short race is the Medium. Last year, Russell did reasonably well on the Soft, but it’s hard to see anyone attempting to do the same tomorrow.”