After winning the Sprint comfortably despite starting down in fourth position, Max Verstappen continued his domination of Saturday at the Shanghai International Circuit by leading a dominant Red Bull 1-2 in qualifying for the grand prix, over three-tenths clear of Sergio Perez and 0.488s ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin in P3.
Q1
Before the start of qualifying, the FIA announced Fernando Alonso was given a 10-eecond time penalty for his clash with Carlos Sainz in the Sprint race, and three penalty points in his license, putting the Spaniard’s total for 12 months up to 6.
The first session started under blue skies and sunny conditions around the Shanghai International Circuit, a stark contrast to Friday’s Sprint Qualifying session. But one thing that didn’t change was the crowd excited response for seeing Zhou Guanyu take to track.
The drivers all took to the pit lane in a queue to see who would get out first, and Nico Hulkenberg caught the eye of not only Williams’ Alex Albon, but also the stewards, with his queue jumping tactics set to be investigated after the session.
Home hero Zhou Guanyu aborted his first flying lap, whilst Kevin Magnussen put the first time on the board with a 1:36.626, but was soon beaten by George Russell’s Mercedes, who set a 1:36.436 in his first run.
Sprint race pole-sitter, Lando Norris’s first lap was only good enough for second, just under a tenth back from fellow Brit Russell.
Track evolution played a massive part in the session, with the times quickly tumbling. Fernando Alonso set a 1:35.116 and just edged ahead of Verstappen’s first run.
There was a bit of a mishap between Sergio Perez and Alex Albon, as the Mexican felt he was hampered by the slow-moving Williams into turn one, whilst the Thai said he “couldn’t keep off” anymore than he already did.
Sauber looked strong with its opening runs, with Valtteri Bottas sitting P3 early on, and home favourite Zhou in P6 – although nearly eight tenths back from the Finn.
Carlos Sainz’s first lap of the session was on soft tyres, but the Spaniard quickly moved to the softs, and went straight to the top, as the first driver to enter the 1:34 seconds threshold, with a 1:34.970.
With just five minutes of the session remaining, the bottom five comprised Ricciardo, Norris, Hamilton, Magnussen and Perez, with all big names needing a good run to get through to Q2.
Norris soon changed that, with a time of a 1:34.842 getting the McLaren to P1. Sergio Perez followed him, going sixth fastest, but over six tenths back from Norris.
Zhou Guanyu improved his time massively in his final run, despite a look-up into the hairpin in the final sector, jumping up to eighth place, for the delight of the crowd.
Lewis Hamilton had the same lock-up as Zhou in the hairpin, and both suffered the effects from the mistakes, as the pair got knocked out in 16th and 18th for Zhou and Hamilton respectively. Sergio Perez got through on the brink, down in 15th place.
Another to be knocked out was Logan Sargeant, as he dramatically spun in his Williams, catching a polystyrene board in the process, but no major damage done.
Daniel Ricciardo out-qualified Yuki Tsunoda for only the second time this season in grand prix qualifying, as the Japanese finished Q1 down in 19th. Kevin Magnussen couldn’t replicate the heroics from his team-mate (Hulkenberg was sixth fastest in Q1, just three tenths back from P1) and finished down in 17th.
KNOCKED OUT IN Q1: Zhou P16, Magnussen P17, Hamilton P18, Tsunoda P19 and Sargeant P20.
Q2
The second session had a quiet start, with the first cars taking to the track nearly three minutes after the green light at the end of the pit lane.
Alonso was one of the first drivers to get a lap in Q2, setting a 1:34.801 – but the Spaniard went wide at the hairpin, much like Zhou and Hamilton in Q1 – and was soon beaten by both McLarens and Verstappen.
The Dutchman crushed the field by over half-a-second, and nearly a full second back to his team-mate Sergio Perez.
But the session was soon red flagged as Carlos Sainz dipped his wheels in the gravel at the exit of the final corner, sliding his Ferrari across the track and into the tyre barriers. The Spaniard managed to get his SF-24 going again, and made his way back to the pits with a broken front wing.
He reported over the radio he tried to save the car after realising he would crash, trying to keep it sideways and avoid hitting the barriers front- or rear-on.
The clock stopped with 6:44 of the session remaining, with the bottom five consisting of Albon, Ocon, Gasly, Sainz and Russell – the latter two yet to set a lap time.
Russell was the first to get back out on track as the session restarted, along with Max Verstappen – the Dutchman was the first to get into the 1:33’s barrier just before the session was interrupted.
The sole remaining Mercedes in qualifying went third fastest with his first flying lap, just over six tenths back from Verstappen’s initial time, before the three-time champion upped the bar further with a 1:33.794.
After causing the earlier red flag, Carlos Sainz turned things around to set an impressive lap to go second fastest in his one and only flying lap.
Valtteri Bottas put an impressive effort for Sauber to go through to Q3, just 0.069s ahead of Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin.
Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly completed the bottom five in Q2.
KNOCKED OUT IN Q2: Stroll P11, Ricciardo P12, Ocon P13, Albon P14, Gasly P15.
Q3
All drivers bar Valtteri Bottas went out for a run in the opening minutes of the final shootout session.
Verstappen went straight to P1 with a 1:33.977, just under four tenths clear of Alonso’s Aston Martin and nearly half-a-secind clear of his team-mate.
Oscar Piastri went a bit wide in the final corner in his opening run, but managed to avoid having a crash akin to Sainz’s earlier shunt, setting a time good enough for P5, just under eight hundredths back from Norris.
Ahead of the final runs, the order of the top 10 was: Verstappen, Alonso, Perez, Norris, Piastri, Sainz, Leclerc, Hulkenberg, Russell and Bottas – with the latter yet to set a time.
Most of the drivers apart from Verstappen and Alonso were on used soft tyres for the opening runs, explaining some massive time gaps between the drivers.
The two Ferrari drivers were perhaps the (negative) surprise of the first run, over seven tenths back from Verstappen for the only team to win races other than Red Bull for nearly two years.
It all shuffled around after the final runs, with Max Verstappen setting an incredibly high bar for others to beat with a 1:33.660, ahead of Perez by three tenths and nearly half-a-second clear of Alonso. The two McLarens beat the two Ferraris for P4 and P5, with Leclerc and Sainz P6 and P7 respectively. Despite a strong lap, George Russell fell down to P8 eventually, ahead of Hulkenberg and Bottas.
Verstappen’s pole is Red Bull’s 100th since it started in F1 all the way back in 2005, and fittingly, their first also came at Shanghai courtesy of Sebastian Vettel, back in 2009.
