After winning the sprint race this morning, Max Verstappen hoists his single-seater for the first time to grab pole position for the Shanghai Grand Prix.
Q1
The Alpines were the first cars to go out on the track, accompanied by the Haas and the AlphaTauri.
Carlos Sainz made an out-lap with ground midsize tires to see if there was any damage on his car following contact with Alonso during the sprint race.
Hulkenberg’s pit lane elbows-out moment was noted by the stewards and will be analyzed after the end of the session.
The best provisional time of Georges Russel is 1.36.436s, 2-tenths ahead of Magnussen.
Yuki Tsunoda had a problem with DRS, so he went back to the pits.
Sainz with his medium tires placed in 6th provisional position, 1 second from his teammate who took the lead of the classification away from Russell.
10 minutes before the end, the two Aston Martin placed in 1st and 3rd position.
Perez had to cut his effort after an incident with Alex Albon, an incident noted by the commissioners. He was part of the 3 drivers who had not set a time, accompanied by Albon and Piastri
The Australian finished his hot lap, he took at this moment of the Q1 all the sector records and head of the provisional classification with a time of 1:35.014.
A few minutes later he was beaten by Carlos Sainz, who set a time with soft tires, 44 thousandths ahead.
The two alpines were qualified for the moment in Q2, the drivers managed to raise their single-seater to 10th and 12th provisional positions.
3 minutes from the end of Q1, the drivers in the pits rushed to the exit to achieve the best possible time and try to qualify in Q2. Lando Norris took his McLaren to the lead with a time of 1:34.842.
The Sauber was in shape this weekend as Bottas moved ahead of the 2 Red Bulls in the provisional standings by placing in 5th position and his teammate just behind in 9th place.
1 minute before the end, Logan Sargeant caused a yellow flag after a runway excursion without great consequences. Most of the drivers made a final lap before the end of this Q1, and all improved their own time. Lewis Hamilton did not pass in Q2 despite a second place in the sprint race this morning.
Unfortunately, this did not allow the local hero to qualify in the second half of this qualifying session.
Max Verstappen took his habits and finished this Q1 at the top of the ranking.
For the first time in this 2024 season, the two Alpine passed in Q2.
Q1 knockouts : Logan Sargeant (20th), Yuki Tsunoda (19th), Lewis Hamilton (18th), Kevin Magnussen (17th) and Guanyu Zhou (16th)
Q2
12 minutes before the end, Hulkenberg was the first to go out ahead of the Alpine drivers while the other drivers were at the exit of the pit lane trying to create a gap with the driver in front of them.
Charles Leclerc was the only driver to come out with used tires for these first laps out of the pits.
8 minutes before the end of this session, Lando Norris raised his McLaren to the first row, just in front of his teammate. Perez, on the other hand, was only in 5th position just under a second behind his teammate, who took the lead in this provisional classification.
The red flag came out following the crash of Carlos Sainz at the exit of the last corner, he
restarted his car and made his way back to the pits with a single-seater with no front wing.
Georges Russel was the only one not to have made a fast lap. He was the first to go out on track to finally succeed in setting a time.
The Mercedes driver was joined on track by Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver put on new soft tires. At that time, no other pilots were out.
Russell was in 3rd provisional position, he finished his fast lap just before all the drivers left the pits.
With 2 minutes to go, all the drivers came out with new soft tires. They had only one attempt left to try to qualify for Q3.
Sainz wanted to catch up with his team and started for his last attempt in Q2, he was then in second position. His teammate was in 3rd position.
Albon, Ricciardo, and Gasly could not improve their time and did not qualify for the rest of this qualifying session.
Only Bottas could make a difference, and he did, as he qualified in P10 and eliminated Lance Stroll.
Nico Hülkenberg also managed to raise his Haas to 9th position and therefore qualified for Q3.
Q2 knockouts: Pierre Gasly (15th), Alex Albon (14th), Esteban Ocon (13th), Daniel Ricciardo (12th) and Lance Stroll (11th).
Q3
Only Russell and Hulkenberg came out of the pits with used tires. All the drivers were out at the beginning of the Q3 except Valtteri Bottas who will surely make only one attempt.
Russell and Hulkenberg had similar early sectors, quickly beaten by Fernando Alonso.
Max Verstappen took the provisional pole with a time of 1:33.977 ahead of Alonso and Perez.
Piastri had a slight scare in the last corner of the circuit but managed to keep his car on the track despite touching the gravel.
5 minutes before the end of the Q3, all the drivers went back to the pits to be able to put on new tires.
The two pairs of Ferrari and McLaren drivers followed closely at the exit of the pits to make their last fast laps.
The track lost some degrees, and the Ferrari drivers did not improve their time in the first sector and could not beat that of Hulkenberg.
The 2 Ferraris then placed 6th and 7th behind the 2 McLarens, they placed in 4th and 5th positions.
Max Verstappen took first place ahead of his teammate. Both were closely followed by Fernando Alonso.
Georges Russel finished in 8th position. The 5th row will be composed of Nico Hülkenberg (9th) and Valtteri Bottas (10th).