@Max33Verstappen storms to 37th-career pole at #ChineseGP. #F1
Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB20, Qualifying, Formula 1 Lenovo Chinese Grand Prix 2024, Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China. Image credit to Lars Baron/Getty Images. Verstappen Chinese GP Pole, 2024 Chinese GP Qualifying, F1 Chinese GP Qualifying Results, Chinese Grand Prix Qualifying Results.
Verstappen Chinese GP Pole – Max Verstappen scored Red Bull’s 100th pole position in Formula 1 after a solid final flying lap in qualifying at the Chinese GP, ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez in another 1-2 front-row lockout for the Milton Keynes based-outfit as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rounded out the top three.
In Q3, in the initial flyers, Verstappen scored a personal best sector one and two purples in sectors two and three to take provisional pole with a 1:33.977 and was 0.394 seconds quicker than Alonso who took a purple sector one and two personal bests in the final two sectors as Perez was a further 0.493 adrift of his Red Bull team-mate in third.
In the final hot laps, Verstappen scores a personal best in sector one, followed by two purples to post a 1:33.660 to take the 37th pole position of his career and ahead of team-mate Perez who took three personal best efforts to jump Alonso into second and ended up 0.322 seconds off his team-mate.
The two McLaren MCL38 entries followed as Lando Norris placed fourth and fifth respectively as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ended up sixth and seventh for Ferrari.
The sole running Mercedes of George Russell qualified eighth as MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg and Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas completed the top ten.
In the middle segment, which was topped by Verstappen, with six minutes and 44 minutes remaining, the red flag was brought out after Ferrari’s Sainz took too much kerb into the final corner dipping his rear right wheel into the gravel trap on the exit, spun across the track and hit the inside wall losing his front wing.
The Spaniard managed to keep his SF-24 running and slowly returned back to the pits.
When the running resumed, a late improvement from Bottas saw the Finn eliminate Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll by a very narrow 0.069 seconds meaning the Canadian will start 11th for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix.
RB’s Daniel Ricciardo was next in 12th and in-front of Alpine’s duo Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly who took 13th and 15th respectively as Williams’ Alexander Albon sandwiched in-between the pairing taking 14th.
In the first qualifying stage, which was topped by Verstappen, a flurry of late improvements saw Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu knocked out of Q1 by a very narrow 0.048 seconds and starts his home Grand Prix in 16th and ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen take 17th.
Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton suffered a massive lock-up into the turn 14 right hand hairpin and failed to improve on his hot-lap and wound up a shock eliminatee in 18th after the improvements from Russell, Stroll, Leclerc, Gasly and Ocon.
RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Williams’ Logan Sargeant brought up the rear.
You can see the full Formula 1 Lenovo Chinese Grand Prix 2024 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2024/races/1233/china/qualifying.html
2024 Chinese GP Qualifying – The Top Three
2024 Chinese GP Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB20, 1:33.660:
“The car worked even better in Qualifying, that final lap felt pretty decent and very happy to drive here in the dry, it was a lot of fun”
2nd Place – Sergio Perez, #11, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB20, +0.322s:
“Very intense, I nearly got knocked out in Q1! Just made it through a very messy start to Qualifying. Q2 was more straightforward, unfortunately in the end just not enough to get Max but it was a tremendous team result. We changed the car a lot to adapt to the conditions so that should help for tomorrow. Everything to fight for tomorrow.”
3rd Place – Fernando Alonso, #14, Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team-Mercedes, AMR24, +0.488s:
“I had a moment in Turn 1 and 2, I nearly lost the car but didn’t give up, kept pushing and set a good lap time. Extremely happy, proud of the team, we are not giving up – we are not in the position we want yet but we keep pushing.”
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