Why Piastri was unbeatable even without “hairpin of my life” in claiming China GP pole

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri had a surprise rival for pole position at Formula 1’s 2025 Chinese Grand Prix in Mercedes driver George Russell, but the data behind the headline times show that the first-time pole-winner was ultimately unbeatable.

Both of Piastri’s laps would’ve netted pole position, which was eventually set at 1m30.641s, with Lando Norris third in the other McLaren.

Norris has struggled to replicate his best times from the middle phase of both qualifying sessions, as his ingrained style of attacking corner entry overstresses the fragile Pirelli C4 softs and this leads to added sliding on the new smooth surface here, further hurting the rubber.

Comparing the GPS traces of the best laps of both McLaren drivers on their first runs in Q3 shows Norris’s main loss stems from trying to carry too much speed through Turn 6 compared to Piastri – as he emerges with an 0.2-second deficit.

That largely holds until the final two corners, with Norris’s earlier braking for the hairpin paying him back well, as he cuts Piastri’s advantage to just over a tenth, meaning he was just 0.09s down come the finish line to his team-mate’s 1m30.703s.

Norris abandoning his final lap means Russell becomes the driver to measure against Piastri – the Silver Arrows squad driver gaining by trying “something very different” on his final preparation tour.

“I just came out the pits and went dead slow round that warm-up lap ahead of my fast lap,” Russell explained when pressed on what he had changed ahead of his run to second in the final segment of qualifying.

“The first lap in Q3 I was full gas on that lap and it seemed OK — I think I was in P5, but two-and-a-half, three-tenths behind Oscar.

“And then found four tenths on my last lap. Just really came together.”

On the final tours, Russell actually arrived at the Turn 13 hairpin with an 0.05s lead over Piastri – the Mercedes enjoying notably better top speed compared to the McLaren in all of Shanghai’s acceleration zones and had a 12mph difference (Russell braked from 207.5mph) at this point.

But, even with his last-gasp effort, Russell wound up 0.02s slower than Piastri’s first run and was 0.082s down to the pole time too.

This was all thanks to Piastri’s “hairpin of my life” where he flung his MCL39 to Turn 13’s tight apex, just with a single, smooth, controlled sweep of the wheel. This opened up his exit while retaining excellent momentum.

But that still only gained him 0.15s compared to the provisional pole time when he had braked with a 0.2s deficit to himself, and it was actually his effort to nail the final corner – the data shows Piastri stamped on the gas a fraction earlier the second time around and just forced the issue from apex to exit – that gained another 0.05s and lowered the benchmark.

“My first lap was honestly better than my second lap,” Piastri told the post-qualifying press conference.

“But just at the hairpin at the end of the straight I lost a bit of time and didn’t do the best hairpin.

“And then the second lap I was about two tenths down on myself, so I kind of just went, ‘why not send it into the hairpin?’

“And I gained those two tenths back and then found a little bit more in the last corner.

“So, honestly, without that, I was tempted to box before that. I’m pretty happy now that I didn’t. I just did a good corner, that’s all.”