Hamilton soars to record-breaking Sprint pole in China

Making up for his lacklustre debut in Melbourne, Lewis Hamilton put in a “mega” effort to secure Pole for his first Sprint as a Ferrari driver, setting a new all-time lap record of 1:30.849s at the Shanghai International Circuit in the process.

Sprint Qualifying 1:

Impatiently waiting to make their way out on track, a queue headed by the eager Mercedes duo quickly formed in the pitlane to start the opening SQ1 segment of the Sprint Shootout.

The Silver Arrows opted for two warm-up laps on the mandatory medium compound tyre, with their direct competitors joining them minutes later.

For Oscar Piastri, SQ1 was one of the calmer qualifying sessions of his career, with the Australian’s first flying lap putting a whopping half a second between himself in P1 and the driver in second.

McLaren was so confident in the #81’s initial run that the team withheld him in the garage to watch the minutes tick by, a decision that proved virtuous as he advanced in P4.

For Jack Doohan and Liam Lawson, it was a disappointing end to the first Sprint Qualifying session of the season.

In the Australian’s case, his session started in a risky position when he fell to P15, right on the border of the elimination zone.

He made a minor improvement to P8, but as his midfield competitors followed a similar trend, his advantage soon dissipated.

When it came to his final run in SQ1, Doohan’s problems worsened after he was reported blocked across the 5.4km lap.

To make matters worse, his lap time was ultimately deleted and he was forced to settle into P16, 36 milliseconds behind the cut-off time, however, encouragingly ahead of Pierre Gasly.

Liam Lawson also bowed out early, qualifying in last place after admitting he “just could not get the tyres down” on his final run.

Lawson started the session over a second off the pace and was never able to improve after his fastest lap was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 16.

As for the rest of the field, Verstappen was the first driver to launch for a flying lap in SQ1, setting purple sectors before a speedy final sector saw Lewis Hamilton taking the top spot with a time of 1:32.229s.

Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris soon came within touching distance of the Ferrari driver, before Piastri flew to the top of the order.

During SQ1, two incidents were noted by the stewards — the first being George Russell impeding Yuki Tsunoda at Turn 14, and the second being a similar incident between Lance Stroll and Oliver Bearman, with both receiving “no further action”.

At the back of the pack, Tsunoda, Carlos Sainz, Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto and Esteban Ocon found themselves occupying the elimination zone, and with just five minutes remaining on the clock, their task was all the more difficult.

Sainz managed to promote his Williams into an eventual P13, making a nervous wait for the boys in blue as they watched both drivers drift dangerously close to the knockout zone, however, all was well by the chequered flag.

The same could not be said for the French team further up the pitlane, with Pierre Gasly reportedly being blocked on his final run to trail his rookie teammate in P17, ahead of fellow SQ1-exiters Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg and the underperforming Red Bull.

Sprint Qualifying 2:

It was a tamer start to SQ2 with the field gradually rolling out of the pitlane as opposed to the stressful SQ1 queue seen just minutes prior.

Among the first starters was Piastri who took his time in setting a flying lap despite his prompt appearance on track. 

Looking competitive, the Australian promoted his MCL39 into the top three, less than two-tenths behind Norris before finishing out the session in the pitlane once again.

As for the rest of the field, it was the Australian’s teammate who set the early benchmark, a time of 1:31.174s.

Piastri and Verstappen came close, however, the Briton held onto the top time through to the chequered flag.

Meanwhile, Leclerc spent the bulk of his initial lap wresting the SF25 around the Shanghai International Circuit, forced to abort the lap as the car failed to find the rails. 

As the final round of attempts kicked off, six drivers were yet to record a time on the board, making for an anxious wait for neither every driver barring the top three, Norris, Piastri and Verstappen, who had returned to the pitlane. 

Isack Hadjar made a costly error on his lap, however, it played into Tsunoda’s hands when he was forced to focus on the team game, giving the #22 a tow on the run down to the hairpin which aided Tsunoda in advancing to the final shootout, just 21 milliseconds clear of P11. 

Albon also advanced to SQ3, jumping up to a temporary P5 and pushing both Mercedes drivers into the elimination zone.

Nervous faces watched on from the Mercedes garage, however, as both drivers set personal best sectors, they soon were able to breathe a sigh of relief when Russell flew to P2 while Antonelli drove home in P5.

Unable to say the same, Fernando Alonso, Bearman, Sainz, Bortoleto and Hadjar were forced to watch the remainder of the session play out from the media pen.

Sprint Qualifying 3:

Sporting the mandatory soft compound tyre for the eight-minute shootout for Sprint pole glory, the McLaren drivers, headed by Piastri, we the first cars to make an attempt. 

The duo traded purple sectors, however, it was Piastri who won the intra-team battle with a leading time of 1:30.929s.

Russell came across the line to split the papaya cars, with Norris’ mid-lap slide proving costly when the rest of the field ramped up the pace.

Hamilton set an early purple sector, but it was stolen by the #4.

That soon became irrelevant when the seven-time world champion continued the positive trend, improving as the sectors went by while the McLaren driver locked up at Turn 14 and aborted his final run.

Crossing the finish line, it was a dream start to Hamilton’s first Sprint weekend with Ferrari as he secured Sprint pole by a slim 18-millisecond margin ahead of Max Verstappen, with the 2021 rivals set to share the front row once again.

The Ferrari driver also set a blistering all-time lap record at the Shanghai International Circuit with his pole time of 1:30.849s.

The disappointment of Norris’ final run means he will start the 19-lap teaser from P6 on the grid.

As for Piastri, he will line up from third on the Sprint grid after his last-ditch attempt saw the #81 fall flat compared to his competitors.

On an encouraging note, Piastri still remained within eight-hundredths of a second of Hamilton, making for a tight top-three battle come tomorrow’s Sprint.

The margins grew bigger as the order went by, with a fourth-placed Leclerc taking the chequered flag two-tenths behind the Australian, with Russell, Norris and Antonelli in his mirrors.

The final three positions were in a fight of their own, with Tsunoda winning out against Albon and Stroll, and being hopeful of holding onto P8, the final points-scoring position, come the chequered flag on Saturday.

However, the RB driver will have to focus on ‘lights out’ first, with the start of the first Sprint of the 2025 season taking place at 14:00 tomorrow.

Image: Scuderia Ferrari

Sprint Qualifying Results:

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