@MercedesAMGF1’s Andrea Kimi #Antonelli Becomes Youngest #F1 Pole Sitter at #ChineseGP.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli celebrates in parc fermé after taking pole position for Mercedes and becoming the youngest pole sitter in Formula 1 history during qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit. Image credit to: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images. Antonelli Chinese GP Pole, 2026 Chinese GP Qualifying.
Antonelli Chinese GP Pole – Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli made Formula 1 history after securing pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix, becoming the youngest pole sitter in F1 history at just 19 years old. Antonelli edged team-mate George Russell, who battled a late power issue in Q3 but recovered to second place, sealing a Mercedes front-row lockout in Shanghai as Ferrari’s Sir Lewis Hamilton completed the top three.
Image credit to: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images. Antonelli Chinese GP Pole, 2026 Chinese GP Qualifying.
In Q3, championship leader Russell was seen stuck on the exit of turn two and three with a loss of power briefly and managed to get going again to make it back to the pits, but with his F1 W17 racer stuck in first gear.
the initial flyers saw Antonelli the first driver to register the benchmark of a 1:32.322 with three purple sectors, Leclerc slotted into second with a 1:32.623 with Hamilton taking third to be 0.698 seconds off Antonelli’s provisional pole time.
Haas’s Oliver Bearman went fourth overall and 1.634 seconds down as Alpine’s Gasly was down in sixth.
McLaren’s Lando Norris moved up to second with three personal bests with his 1:32.608, but only momentarily as his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri bumped the reigning world champion down to third. Piastri posted a 1:32.550 to take provisional second.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen only managed sixth with three personal bests and was over a second down on Antonelli’s provisional pole time.
The final hot-laps saw Antonelli venture out first once again and the Italian set a 1:32.064 to improve at the top, Norris remained in third with a 1:32.631.
Leclerc bumped Piastri third to be 0.364 seconds off Antonelli as Hamilton jumped to second with his 1:32.415 effort to be 0.351 seconds adrift of Antonelli.
Piastri remained in fourth with his 1:32.550 effort and ahead of team-mate Norris.
Russell managed to get out for one hot-lap and with three personal bests managed to take second behind his Mercedes team-mate Antonelli to secure a Silver Arrows front-row lockout. The championship leader set a 1:32.286 to be 0.222 seconds off the Italian.
Hamilton ended up third and 0.351 seconds off Antonelli and ahead of Ferrari team-mate Leclerc who qualified fourth.
In the middle segment, which was topped by Antonelli, A late double-waved-yellow hit after Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto went off in the final corner gravel trap.
Replays showed the Brazilian suffered a spin out the final corner and pirouetted in the gravel.
His team-mate Nico Hulkenberg just missed out on a Q3 appearance by only 0.002 seconds and was unable to improve on his final flyer meaning the German will start 11th.
Alpine’s Franco Colapinto made a late improvement but was only good enough for 12th and in-front of Haas’s Esteban Ocon who placed 13th and RB pairing Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad who were 14th and 15th respectively.
The aforementioned Bortoleto was the slowest of the Q2 eliminatees in 16th.
In the first qualifying stage, which was topped by Leclerc, A late improvement from Bortoleto eliminated Williams’ Carlos Sainz out of Q1 meaning the Spaniard will start 17th on the grid for tomorrow’s Chinese GP.
The other Williams FW48 entry of Alexander Albon ended up 18th and in-front of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who took 19th in the order.
Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas despite three personal bests could only reach 20th and ahead of the other Mercedes-powered AMR26 entry of Lance Stroll who came 21st.
The other Cadillac MAC-01 entry of Sergio Perez brought up the rear.
You can see the full Formula 1 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix 2026 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN CHINESE GRAND PRIX 2026 – QUALIFYING
2026 Chinese GP Qualifying – The Top Three
Image credit to: Mark Thompson / Getty Images. Antonelli Chinese GP Pole, 2026 Chinese GP Qualifying.
2026 Chinese GP Pole Position – Andrea Kimi Antonelli, #12, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team, F1 W17 – 1:32.064:
“Was a pretty clean session, so really happy. Of course, George had an issue, so would have been cool to see him with two sets. I saw he had an issue, but I just tried to keep my focus and deliver a good lap.”
2nd Place – George Russell, #63, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team, F1 W17 – +0.222s:
“Definitely damage limitation. In Q2 the front wing broke, and then in Q3 stopped out on track and then couldn’t change gear. On the last lap I had no battery, no tyre temp or anything. The team did a really good job.”
3rd Place – Sir Lewis Hamilton, #44, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-26 – +0.351s:
“It was actually a really tough Qualifying, a bit harder this one with the wind. Putting the laps together was challenging. I am really, really happy to be up here. We did some good work, the engineers did some good work over the break, and we managed to get a little closer to [Mercedes] so that’s a positive. I’m sure we’ll have some fun [in the race], I’m looking forward to it.”
