Antonelli breaks record to claim Pole for Chinese GP

Kimi Antonelli becomes the youngest Polesitter in F1 history – breaking a decade-long record – to claim Pole Position ahead of tomorrow’s Chinese GP as Mercedes team-mate George Russell encountered issues.

Rhonan Colquhoun 11:01am 14th March 2026

It had been tight at the top throughout the first two qualifying segments with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Antonelli on top as the final shoot-out approached.

On his first lap out of the pits, Russell slowed and came to a halt. The Sprint Race Winner managed to get going but could only travel back to the pits in first gear.

Antonelli produced a brilliant initial lap with a two tenth advantage over the chasing which was led by the McLaren’s of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

As the clock ticked down, Mercedes was able to diagnose Russell’s issue and sent him back out for one run with only minutes to spare. Antonelli improved further on his second lap and while Russell couldn’t quite top his team-mate, but his one-run was good enough for the front-row.

Antonelli, who lined-up on the front-row for the Sprint race earlier in the day, suffered a poor start which was then compounded by making contact with Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull which the Mercedes driver received a penalty but was able to recover to fifth.

“I’m feeling great. It was a good session, a good way to end the day after a difficult Sprint.

Antonelli claims his first official Pole Position of his career, although he did qualify on Pole for last year’s Miami Sprint Race. He now becomes the new record holder of the youngest driver to qualify on Pole Position – the record previously held by Sebastian Vettel who was 21 years old at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix with Antonelli 19 and a half years old.

He also becomes the first Italian to line-up in first place since Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix.

It’ll be an all Ferrari second row of the grid with Lewis Hamilton pipping team-mate Charles Leclerc, but both will be eyeing for the lead into Turn 1 given just how well they’ve both been able to launch their cars off of the grid so far this season.

It’ll be an all McLaren third row as well as Piastri remained ahead of Norris albeit both drivers half a second off of pole but they do seem to be comfortably the third best team round the Shanghai International Circuit.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly once again put in a remarkable effort to outqualify the Red Bull pairing of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar for seventh while Haas’s Oliver Bearman rounded out the top ten.

Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto missed out on a spot in the final shoot-out by less than 0.005 of a second while Haas’s Esteban Ocon and the two Racing Bull’s of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad were denied an opportunity of improving their positions.

Garbriel Bortoleto had a massive snap at the final corner which sent his Audi into a violent spin across the gravel trap and lightly hitting the barrier, but the yellow flags meant that Ocon, Lawson and Lindblad’s laps were all compromised.

One of the biggest shocks of the session came at the end of the first part of qualifying where the usual suspects – both Williams, Aston Martin and Cadillac drivers – were eliminated, however, Valtteri Bottas was able to outqualify Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll on pure pace with the Cadillac driver close to out-qualifying Stroll’s team-mate Fernando Alonso.