George Russell led teammate Kimi Antonelli as Mercedes dominated sprint qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Russell finished 0.289 seconds ahead of the Italian and 0.621 seconds ahead of the first non-Mercedes driver, world champion Lando Norris in a McLaren.
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Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, just 0.02 seconds slower than Norris, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finished fifth ahead of Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari.
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen finished eighth, 1.734 seconds off pace and behind Alpine driver Pierre Gasly.
Haas’s Oliver Bearman was ninth, ahead of second-placed Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar.
Russell secured his second pole position in six days after taking pole position and winning at the season opener in Australia.
Qualifying followed a very similar pattern to Melbourne – Russell was about 0.3 seconds faster than Antonelli, with the fastest Ferrari a similar distance behind.
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Russell said: “The car performed really well all day and compared to Melbourne when you go through these big deratings (when the engine switches to recuperation mode) the engine behaves more normally and is a bit more challenging to drive. The focus since Melbourne has been on improving starts.”
Norris, who endured a difficult race in Melbourne, said: “I’m happy with the result. Third place is the best we can do at the moment and it’s nice to beat both Ferraris. It was a good lap and gets me ready for tomorrow.”
Hamilton, who had practiced spinning earlier in the day, added: “I’m really happy with the session. The first leg was a tricky session with spin.
“We lost a lot of time on the straights and we still have a lot of work to do to improve the momentum.
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“Mercedes did a great job and we have to step up and try to close the gap. In terms of the car, the car feels great and we can compete in the corners, but that’s what happens when you don’t have enough power.”
In Australia, Ferrari were more competitive in the race, with Leclerc jumping from fourth into the lead at the start.
Leclerc said he lost 0.5 seconds on the back straight in his final sprint – more than the gap between himself and Hamilton.
“In qualifying, for some reason the Mercedes power unit gained a lot of lap time,” he said, “but in the race we were much closer.”
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The biggest outlier is Red Bull. Hadjar qualified third in Australia, but both cars were well behind in Shanghai.
Verstappen crashed on his first lap in Australia when his rear brake locked up at the first corner, but he at least completed a stage nearly 0.5 seconds ahead of his teammate.
But that’s little consolation for the four-time champion when the gap to the leader is so wide.
“It was a disaster in terms of speed, no grip, no balance, just losing a lot of time in the corners and then starting to cause other problems,” Verstappen said.
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Behind, the struggling Williams and Aston Martin teams continued to struggle.
Leading Carlos Sainz’s Williams was 17th, 1.7 seconds behind. He was more than 0.5 seconds ahead of teammate Alex Albon, who made a mistake on the second lap and ran off the line.
Fernando Alonso qualified the Aston Martin in 19th, 2.5 seconds behind but nearly 0.6 seconds ahead of teammate Lance Stroll.
Williams is struggling with an overweight car, while Aston Martin’s main problem is the Honda engine’s lack of performance and reliability.
The positive side for Aston Martin is that they found a way to isolate the battery from engine vibrations, and so far they haven’t experienced any reliability issues in China. Engine vibration caused a number of issues in pre-season testing and limited mileage in Australia.
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Alonso said: “We’re trying to get the laps done and improve the chassis aspects. That’s what happens with the engine. We don’t have any more power units in stock so any issues could be very difficult for the rest of the weekend, so we need to survive on reliability and learn as much as possible.”
Leclerc speeds past the huge grandstands on the start and finish straights at the Shanghai International Circuit [Getty Images]
Hamilton looked at the cars of his former employers Mercedes… It’s not uncommon for drivers to check out rivals’ faster cars at the start of a season to try to understand possible differences in design [Getty Images]
Top 10
1. George Russell (Mercedes) – 1:31.520
2. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.289
3. Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.621
4. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.641
5. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.704
6. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +1.008
7. Pierre Gasly (Alps) +1.368
8. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +1.734
9. Oliver Bellman (Haas) +1.889
10. Isaac Hajar (Red Bull) +2.203
Full sprint qualifying results