Max Verstappen closes perfect Saturday in China with Red Bull's 100th pole position

The Saturday of the Formula 1 Chinese GP could hardly have been better for Max Verstappen. Hours after winning the Sprint race in Shanghai, the driver secured pole position. It is Red Bull’s 100th pole.

The qualifying summary

From Q1 it was clear that Verstappen would be the favorite for qualifying, as he led the first phase being 0.055s faster than Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), with Lando Norris (McLaren/Mercedes) in third 0.100s behind.

But what matters most in Q1 is avoiding the last five places… and there was a big surprise. After finishing second in the Sprint qualifying and Sprint race, Lewis Hamilton dropped out early in this qualifying session.

The Mercedes seven-time champion fell victim to the significant track evolution at the end. On his last lap, he positioned himself in 12th, but was “swallowed” by the pack and ended up only in 18th, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and Logan Sargeant (Williams/Mercedes).

Also eliminated were Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo/Ferrari) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas Ferrari). A fate that Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) narrowly avoided: he was 15th, just 48 thousandths ahead of Zhou.

Q1 CLASSIFICATION

The margins are so fine 🤏 0.8s separated P1 and Hamilton down in P18 🤯#F1 #ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/sxovnQ66zS
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 20, 2024

Q2 did not go well for Carlos Sainz. The Ferrari driver went into the gravel at the last corner, lost control of the car and hit the barriers on the other side of the track. The situation caused a red flag and, surprisingly, Ferrari managed to get the Spaniard back in action after the track was cleared.

Once again, Verstappen led the way, improving by almost a second and beating Pérez by 0.232s in this session. Despite the incident, Sainz secured a comfortable third place, ahead of teammate Leclerc.

There were no major surprises among the eliminated drivers. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin/Mercedes) finished 11th, missing out on Q2 by 0.102s – behind Valtteri Bottas (Kick Sauber/Ferrari). Daniel Ricciardo (Visa Cash App RB), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Alexander Albon (Williams/Mercedes), and Pierre Gasly (Alpine) also did not advance, finishing in that order from 12th to 15th.

Q2 CLASSIFICATION

After hitting the barriers earlier in the session, Sainz finishes P3 🤯 #F1 #ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/nTrWmHsy35
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 20, 2024

Finally, Q3 arrived… and Verstappen dominated. The three-time world champion set a lap time of 1m33.972s that no one else could beat, but still he didn’t take any risks and improved even further to 1m33.660s. Pérez came closest to beating him, just 0.322s behind… with a lap completed in 1m33.982s.

Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin/Mercedes) was second after the initial attempts, but couldn’t hold onto the position and finished third, 0.488s behind Verstappen – still the main rival to the Red Bulls.

McLaren had another solid session, with a double top five finish – with improvements in the final moments, Lando Norris was fourth and Oscar Piastri fifth, ahead of Leclerc and Sainz. George Russell took the best Mercedes to eighth, with Nico Hülkenberg (Haas/Ferrari) ninth and Bottas in tenth.

Results: