Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli became the youngest driver in Formula One history to take pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix ahead of teammate George Russell.
Russell ended up 0.222 seconds behind the Italian after scrambling to resolve gearbox issues on his car, which could result in him finishing 10th on the grid.
advertise
Mercedes managed to repair Russell’s car in time to get him out on the final lap, and he managed to stay ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
McLaren locked up the third row with a two-by-two on the grid, with Oscar Piastri ahead of world champion Lando Norris.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was seventh, ahead of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar of struggling Red Bull Racing.
Briton Oliver Bearman secured the final spot in the top ten for Haas.
What happened to Russell?
Russell described his second-place finish as “damage limitation” after a string of problems in qualifying.
In the first session, Leclerc became the first driver to beat Russell in an official race this year, finishing less than 0.1 seconds faster than the Briton.
advertise
Then in the second quarter, Russell was third behind Antonelli and Leclerc after suffering a front wing injury for reasons that remain unclear.
Preparing for his final race, Russell’s car stalled on the track on his outside lap because the transmission refused to shift.
Antonelli overtook his teammate and set the fastest lap on his first flight, 0.3 seconds ahead of Leclerc.
After some frantic work in the garage, Mercedes managed to fix Russell’s car and he got out of the car in time to run a lap, but his hasty preparation meant the car wasn’t in top condition for some time while he was on the road.
advertise
Russell said: “It was a crazy race. The front wing broke late in Q2. The team wasn’t sure if it broke but I’m sure it did. And then got stuck on the track and then came back in time. It was more of a complete lap situation.
“P2 was better than I expected when I started the lap without battery and tire temperature. It’s good to be here because I probably would have been a little behind in 10th.”
Antonelli admitted that if Russell had not had any problems in qualifying, he probably would not have taken pole position.
He said: “George had his problems so it might be a different story but it’s nice to get pole position for the first time.”
advertise
Earlier on Saturday, Hamilton battled with Russell for the lead in the early laps of the sprint and was just 0.351 seconds shy of pole position and said he wanted to challenge Mercedes again in the grand prix.
“It was a very tough qualifying session,” Hamilton said. “It was a little windy. It was very windy today. It was challenging.”
“Really happy and grateful to be around these guys. The engineers did some great work during the break and managed to get a little closer to these guys.
“It’s still a challenge, but I’m sure we’re going to have a lot of fun. A lot is learned in the sprint and our goal is to break the gap with these guys in some way.”
Stay tuned for more content
