Max Verstappen continued his dominant start to the season in emphatic style by romping to sprint victory then claiming pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix — an “incredible” 100th for his Red Bull team.
It was an ominous display from Verstappen, who looks on course to win a fourth Grand Prix out of five on Sunday as he marches towards a fourth consecutive world title.
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The Red Bull driver was 0.322 seconds clear of Sergio Perez as Red Bull locked up the front row, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso third on Formula One’s return to China after five years away.
Verstappen clocked a fastest lap of 1min 33.660sec to record the team milestone and his first pole at the Shanghai International Circuit.
“Before I jumped in the car (Red Bull chief Christian) Horner told me if you get pole today it could be number 100 for the team, so I was like, ‘OK, that’s nice, I’ll give it a good go’,” Verstappen said.
“Of course that’s an incredible achievement for the whole team.”
Verstappen won the 19-lap sprint in the morning by a huge 13 seconds from Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes as the Dutchman laid down a marker for Sunday’s 56-lap race.
“The car worked even better in qualifying,” said Verstappen. “That final lap felt pretty decent and very happy to drive here in the dry, it was a lot of fun.
“If the car is even half as good tomorrow as it was in the sprint we will be all right.”
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Lando Norris will start on the second row in his McLaren alongside Alonso for the first Grand Prix to be held in China since 2019 because of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.
Oscar Piastri was fifth fastest in the second McLaren ahead of the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, with George Russell’s Mercedes eighth.
Perez was relieved to be on the front row.
“Very intense, I nearly got knocked out in Q1,” said the Mexican.
“In the final run the track was getting quite a bit better and I managed to put a good lap together.”
Leclerc said he hoped Ferrari could be stronger on Sunday.
“We compromised our qualifying by prioritising the race tomorrow and struggled slightly more than we expected,” said Leclerc.
“Our race pace is strong and it will be a long one, with tyre degradation playing a big role here.”
The Chinese Grand Prix is scheduled to get underway at 5pm AEST.
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Source Agencies
