There was an air of surprise after the sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix, but pre-season favourites McLaren made sure that wasn't the case.
Q1 was a veritable riot of colour, as, somewhat exaggeratedly, the entire field was flipped in the top 3. McLaren led, followed by Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls, with Lando Norris, Isaac Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda finishing this phase on top. Pierre Gasly, Ollie Bearman, Jack Doohan, Gabriel Bortoleto and Liam Lawson were not as lucky or fast, and said goodbye to further competition. The latter driver had a disappointing performance, and his boss gave him only one piece of advice before qualifying: avoid social media...
In Q2, things unfolded similarly to the previous phase; after a brief spat between Mercedes, McLaren quickly took the lead and never relinquished it. Once again, Lando Norris proved to be the fastest ahead of Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, while among the retirements were Esteban Ocon, Nico Hülkenberg, Carlos Sainz and the two Aston Martin names.
After the first fast laps of Q3, we saw the same picture again: the two McLarens in the lead, closely followed by Verstappen. At this stage it was almost clear that the orange team would take pole position, it just remained to see which driver and with which car would do it. In the end, Oscar Piastri managed to finish first, ahead of George Russell and Lando Norris. It was an extremely tight conclusion, let's hope that these emotions will also remain for tomorrow's Chinese Grand Prix!
Photo: Motorsportweek / PlanetF1
