George Russell‘s early hold on the world championship destiny was intensified when he took a monster pole position for Saturday’s sprint race in China.
The Briton capitalised on his win in the opening round in Melbourne last weekend with a fine display at the Shanghai International Circuit, helped by a Mercedes of his dreams.
Russell is now an overwhelming favourite to add eight more points to his tally over the 19-lap dash to set himself up for qualifying, which follows on Saturday, for the grand prix proper on Sunday.
Russell’s Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli was second quickest, having been runner-up in Melbourne.
Antonelli was 0.289sec behind Russell, with defending champion Lando Norris third quickest for McLaren, 0.621sec deficit – a decent lap from him but a yawning gap to his compatriot, to say the least.
Then came Lewis Hamilton in fourth place. He won the sprint here last year, his one shining moment at Ferrari, and this was a decent showing, giving him hope that he can stage a late revival in his career aged 41 in search of the seal of an eighth world title.
George Russell qualified in pole position for the sprint race in Shanghai
Next came McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and then Charles Leclerc in the other Ferrari.
Pierre Gasly of Alpine was a decent seventh, ahead of Max Verstappen – 1.7sec off the pace. Yikes. The Mercedes is supreme and by a margin.
‘This is undriveable,’ complained Verstappen. ‘We have never had anything this bad.’
Russell is hugely popular in China, with a large social media following, and his success was cheered enthusiastically by the crowd.
Ollie Bearman was ninth best for Haas with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar 10th.
At the bottom end of the field, it was another disappointing session for Williams, Aston Martin and Cadillac.
Cadillac, as newcomers, were never going to find it easy in the formative part of the season and they propped up the field today. Valtteri Bottas was 21st fastest of 22 while his team-mate Sergio Perez did not set a time, or indeed leave the pits.
The Astons of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll occupied the two places above them – a painful start to the season for them.
Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon of Williams were in 16th and 17th places respectively. All the Grove-based team’s high hopes of this being their year of revival have fallen horribly flat so far, failing to exploit the new rules as they had long pledged to do.