The first practice session continued with sprint qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, where in a huge surprise, Lewis Hamilton took pole position!
SQ1 started similarly to what we have seen recently. Led by McLaren, Oscar Piastre, Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli. Then in the final moments the tables turned and Scuderia Ferrari took over: Lewis Hamilton closed this stage in the lead, ahead of Norris and Charles Leclerc, while among the dropouts we saw two Alpine drivers, Esteban Ocon, Nico Hülkenberg and a small surprise in last place was Liam Lawson.
SQ2 started again with McLaren dominating, except this time they didn't hand the lead over to the orange cars. Lewis Hamilton came up behind them with a strong lap, but before we could write that he had finished third, George Russell came in between the two McLarens - Hamilton finished fourth. Fernando Alonso, Oliver Bearmann, Carlos Sainz, Gabriel Bortolet and Isack Hadjarno had no such problems, they could go to the shower.
After such circumstances, the last phase could have come, where the strange Scuderia Ferrari and especially Hamilton felt the rhythm and took the lead. Piastri was close to the Briton, but Norris did not even try to catch up with his compatriot. Not so Verstappen, who until the last moments had a very serious chance of winning the sprint qualifying. He did not succeed, he fell just short, so Lewis Hamilton has already achieved a "historic" success ahead of Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. It is definitely worth waking up for tomorrow's sprint!
Photo: IMAGO
