The first free practice session continued with qualifying for the sprint on the Chinese Grand Prix program, where to everyone's surprise, Lewis Hamilton took pole position!
SQ1 started in a similar fashion to what we've seen recently. At the front were the McLarens, with Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, and Kimi Antonelli. But in the final moments, the situation changed and Scuderia Ferrari took control: Lewis Hamilton finished this leg in first place, ahead of Norris and Charles Leclerc, while those eliminated included the two Alpine drivers, Esteban Ocon, Nico Hülkenberg, and, to everyone's surprise, Liam Lawson in last place.
SQ2 started again with McLaren dominating, except this time they didn't let their orange cars slip away from the lead. Behind them, Lewis Hamilton appeared again with a strong lap, but before we could write that he finished third, George Russell arrived, placing himself between the two McLarens, so Hamilton finished fourth. Fernando Alonso, Oliver Bearman, Carlos Sainz, Gabriel Bortoletto, and Isack Hadjar didn't have any such problems and were able to go shower.
Against this backdrop, the final act arrived, where, curiously, Scuderia Ferrari, and especially Hamilton, felt the pace and took the lead. Piastri was close to the Briton, while Norris didn't even try to catch his compatriot. Verstappen, however, had a serious chance of winning the sprint qualifying until the final moments. He didn't make it, narrowly missing the mark, so Lewis Hamilton has already achieved a "historic" success ahead of Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. It's worth getting up for tomorrow's sprint!
Photo: IMAGO
