He clocked 1min 31.520sec around the Shanghai International Circuit
\n SHANGHAI
\nChampionship pacesetter George Russell took pole position on Friday for the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race, leading a Mercedes one-two ahead of Kimi Antonelli.
\nRussell clocked 1min 31.520sec around the 5.451km Shanghai International Circuit, 0.289sec quicker than Antonelli with world champion Lando Norris 0.621sec behind his fellow Englishman in third.
\nJoining Norris on the second row for Saturday morning\u2019s 19-lap race will be Lewis Hamilton, winner of the China sprint a year ago.
\nThe seven-time Formula One world champion was fourth in his Ferrari, 0.641sec slower than Russell.
\n\u201cThe car\u2019s been feeling amazing,\u201d said Russell, who leads the championship after winning the season-opening race in Australia last weekend.
\n\u201cWe knew after Melbourne we had a really good car. The engine\u2019s performing really well. And today it was a real joy to drive, so I\u2019m happy,\u201d added Russell.
\nItalian teenager Antonelli said he had room for improvement.
\n\u201cThe pace is very strong. Just didn\u2019t put the lap together at the end on the softs. Still some work to do. It\u2019s all to play for tomorrow,\u201d said the 19-year-old.
\nThe McLarens left it till late in the final qualifying session to go out for their single flying lap, hoping to take advantage of the track at its quickest.
\nIt paid off as Norris got ahead of the two Ferraris and Oscar Piastri split them, coming in fifth fastest.
\n\u201cActually pretty happy to beat both of the Ferraris today because they seem pretty good the whole day,\u201d said Norris.
\n\u201cSatisfied, good position for tomorrow. Certainly things have been better this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Car felt great\u2019
\nHamilton, fourth last week in Australia, said he had enjoyed a good Friday again in Shanghai, where he took a surprise sprint pole this time last year for Ferrari.
\n\u201cReally pleased with the session, my team did a really great job,\u201d said Hamilton.
\n\u201cThe car generally felt great, it\u2019s just we\u2019re losing on the straights (to Mercedes), so yeah we have a lot of work to do.\u201d
\nHis teammate Charles Leclerc, third in Melbourne last week, was sixth fastest.
\nPierre Gasly was seventh for Alpine.
\nThe Red Bulls struggled for pace again with their new in-house power units replacing Honda as engine supplier from this season and still getting to grips with the new era regulations.
\nFour-time world champion Max Verstappen was eighth, a colossal 1.734 sec adrift of Russell, and Isack Hadjar was only 10th behind the Haas of Oliver Bearman.
\nSergio Perez did not take part in the session because of a fuel issue with his Cadillac, the new team on the grid.
\nTeams had only a single practice session earlier on Friday to hone their set-ups in Shanghai, which is a very different track to Melbourne, where last week\u2019s opening race was held.
\nShanghai has one long straight and several complexes of turns requiring a different approach to battery deployment and energy harvesting in the new cars, which have a 50-50 split between conventional and electrical power.
\nRussell dominated in practice, topping the timesheets throughout on both medium and soft tyre compounds, clocking 1min 32.741sec to head yet another Mercedes one-two.
\nNorris was 0.555sec behind in third, with his teammate Piastri next.
\nFifth and sixth were the Ferraris of Leclerc and Hamilton respectively.
\nThey had been sporting an innovative flip rear wing in practice, but the Scuderia ditched it for qualifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He clocked 1min 31.520sec around the Shanghai International Circuit SHANGHAI Championship pacesetter George Russell took pole position on Friday for the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race, leading a Mercedes one-two ahead of Kimi Antonelli. Russell clocked 1min 31.520sec around the 5.451km Shanghai International Circuit, 0.289sec quicker than Antonelli with world champion Lando Norris 0.621sec behind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-536499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n