Formula One championship leader George Russell secured pole position for Mercedes in the first sprint race of the season in China on Friday, occupying the entire front row of the grid alongside his team-mate Kimi Antonelli. Russell led every stage of the session at Shanghai and took his first career pole position in the sprint with a time of 1 minute 31.520 seconds. Antonelli showed a result 0.289 seconds worse.
McLaren's Lando Norris will start third after the defending champion told stewards he had not completed a proper warm-up lap when Antonelli, risking losing his place on the grid, interfered with him during the second stage.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, who started from pole position in the 100-kilometer race in China last year, was fourth fastest, ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
In Saturday's race, the winner will receive eight points, points are awarded to the top eight teams. The main Grand Prix will take place on Sunday.
Mercedes: «A real pleasure to drive»
«The car drives absolutely amazing,» said Russell, winner of last weekend's Australian round of the season. “After Melbourne we realized we had a really good car, the engine worked great and it was a real pleasure to drive today.”
“It all happened very quickly and it was great, not at all like Melbourne.” Russell became the third British driver in a row to take pole position in the Shanghai Sprint, following Norris in 2024 and Hamilton in 2025.
He also set the fastest time in the only practice session of the day, ahead of Antonelli, with the Mercedes team comfortably leading the field.
The stewards said in their appeal that Antonelli would have been guilty of undue obstruction if Norris had been lapping fast, but they took no action in light of the champion's words.
Pierre Gasly set the seventh fastest time in Renault's Alpine car after also not being charged with obstruction, while four-time world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull finished eighth.
Xrust Formula 1 leader Russell led Mercedes to pole position in sprint race in China
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