Piastri Chinese GP Pole – Oscar Piastri blasted his MCL39 to take the Shanghai International Circuit lap record and pole position for tomorrow’s 56-lap Chinese GP and only 0.082 seconds clear from Mercedes’ George Russell splitting the McLaren pairing with Lando Norris ending up third.
In Q3, the initial flyers saw reigning world champion Max Verstappen to post a 1:30.925 then came Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli who posted a 1:31.685 to go second until the Racing Bulls drivers Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda split the duo.
Piastri was next with two purple sectors and a personal best to set a 1:30.703 to go provisional pole and then the two Ferrari’s followed as Sprint winner Sir Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc jumped to fourth and fifth respectively.
Then Norris moved into second place and only 0.090 seconds off team-mate Piastri for a provisional McLaren front-row lock-out.
Antonelli had his initial lap-time deleted for exceeding track limits.
In the final flying laps, Verstappen got a purple sector one but was unable to improve on his final two sectors, Norris aborted his final hot-lap as Piastri despite not improving in the opening two sectors gained a purple in the last to score pole position with a 1:30.641 and the lap record.
Russell set three personal bests in his final flying lap posting a 1:30.723 and a slim 0.082 seconds off Piastri to split the McLaren’s and line-up on the front-row alongside the Australian.
Verstappen qualified in fourth place ahead of Ferrari duo Hamilton and Leclerc who were fifth and sixth respectively.
RB’s Tsunoda and Hadjar followed in sixth and eighth whilst Antonelli sandwiched in-between in seventh place.
Williams’ Alexander Albon was the slowest of the Q3 runners in tenth.
In the second qualifying stage, which was topped by Norris, a late improvement from Hadjar sent Haas’s Esteban Ocon out of a Q3 appearance meaning the Frenchman will start the Chinese GP in 11th place.
Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg qualified 12th and in-front of Aston Martin pairing Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll who were 13th and 14th respectively as Williams’ Carlos Sainz was unable to find any gains on his flyer and wound up 15th.
In the opening segment, which was topped by Norris, a flurry of improvements saw Haas’s Ocon eliminate Alpine’s Pierre Gasly who will start tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix in 16th.
The other MoneyGram Haas F1 Team VF-25 entry of Oliver Bearman ended up 17th and in-front of the other Alpine A525 of Jack Doohan who was 18th.
Both Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Red Bull’s Liam Lawson brought up the rear with the latter being under investigation by the race stewards for failing to slow under yellow flags after Doohan’s spin.
You can see the full Formula 1 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix 2025 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2025/races/1255/china/qualifying
2025 Chinese GP Qualifying – The Top Three
2025 Chinese GP Pole Position – Oscar Piastri, #81, McLaren Formula 1 Team-Mercedes, MCL39 – 1:30.641:
“Q3 just found a lot of pace, Q1 and Q2 I was genuinely struggling. The car came alive in Q3, and I came alive in Q3. I’m just pumped to be on pole, I’m very happy. I’ll take the fastest lap of Shanghai! I just have to make sure I keep that clean air, but I was pretty happy after the Sprint, so I feel like we learned a lot and looking forward to putting that into use tomorrow.”
2nd Place – George Russell, #63, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team, F1 W15 – +0.082s:
“Feels incredible to be honest. It was one of the hardest quali session I’ve done in a long, long time. Did something totally different on that last lap and it all came together. I was going fast on the out-lap, slow on the out-lap, prepping the out-lap. I had a moment at Turn 1, rolled the dice. I knew it was a good lap but to split the McLarens… We know they’ll be quick, but I’ll do everything to stay where I am or jump ahead of them.”
3rd Place – Lando Norris, #4, McLaren Formula 1 Team-Mercedes, MCL39 – +0.152s:
“Always disappointed if I’m not on pole but Oscar deserves it today, he’s done a good job all weekend. A couple of mistakes again, but the car feels better and yeah, not too disappointed. Today was just mistakes from my side, that’s all.”