Shanghai, Mar 21: Lewis Hamilton astonished the crowd and himself by securing his maiden Sprint pole position for Ferrari in the final moments of qualifying Friday at the Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Hamilton arrived in Shanghai after his disappointing season-opening race last weekend in Australia, where he finished 10th in his first race for Ferrari. He only managed fourth fastest in opening practice here for a modest improvement on that.
He topped the first section of sprint qualifying for the season, before the dominant McLaren of Lando Norris took over in SQ2. An aborted lap from the McLaren driver, following a mistake on his final lap, handed Hamilton his chance – and the seven-time world champion took it in stunning style with less than a minute remaining.
Hamilton’s time was just 18 one-thousandths of a second ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, with Norris’ McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri third. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth, with Mercedes’ George Russell closing out the top five.
“I didn’t expect that result, but so, so happy and so proud,” Hamilton said. “I think obviously the last race was a disaster. Clearly we knew that there was more performance in the car but we just weren’t able to extract it,” in Melbourne.
“So to come here to a track that I love — and the car really came alive. The team did a fantastic job to get the car ready and yeah, I’m a bit in shock.”
The 40-year-old Hamilton’s move from Mercedes to Ferrari dominated F1 headlines ahead of the 2025 season. (AP)
