Hamilton takes stunning first Ferrari pole for sprint race, Norris sixth

Lewis Hamilton announced his arrival at Ferrari by taking pole position for the Formula 1 sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix and is joined on the front row by old foe Max Verstappen.

McLaren had looked dominant until the third qualifying session, with Oscar Piastri third and Lando Norris down in sixth after making errors on both of his attempts.

Hamilton had been hooked up for the whole day and, having taken six grand prix poles and six victories in Shanghai, he will once again start from P1 with a lap record of 1m30.849s.

The seven-time world champion struggled on his Ferrari debut in Australia but looked much more at home and will be hoping to convert pole to sprint victory on Saturday.

Verstappen, who finished second in Melbourne, starts on the front row following his own fine lap, while Charles Leclerc is fourth for Ferrari.

The Mercedes pair of George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be disappointed to only be fifth and seventh, respectively, while Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon and Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10.

It had appeared the McLarens were vying with one another to take pole but Piastri’s best effort was ultimately beaten by both Hamilton and Verstappen while two small mistakes cost Norris a shot at being further up the field.

The second Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso will start the sprint race 11th with Oliver Bearman impressing for Haas by taking 12th ahead of Carlos Sainz, Gabriel Bortoleto and Isack Hadjar.

While Norris ran wide on his first SQ1 run, Piastri took half a second out of the Ferraris who had been sitting at the top of the timesheets.

However, it was another tough session for the second Red Bull of Liam Lawson, who was plum last and over a second and a half off SQ1 pace-setter Hamilton having had a lap time deleted.

Both Alpines were also eliminated in SQ1, Jack Doohan beating Pierre Gasly for 16th, while Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg were slower than their respective rookie team-mates down in 18th and 19th.

F1 Chinese GP – Sprint qualifying results