Russell claims Pole ahead of China Sprint Race

It was business as usual for Mercedes continued their early dominance with a front-row lock-out ahead of the sport’s first Sprint Race of the year with George Russell claiming Pole Position ahead of Kimi Antonelli.

Rhonan Colquhoun 12:33pm 13th March 2026

Russell, who won the opening race of the season in Australia, remained at the top of the timesheets with the Brit topping the sole practice session before leading each of the three qualifying segments.

The Mercedes driver, who leads the championship for the first time in his career, was again looking comfortable in the W17 - stating post-qualifying it was a “joy to drive”.

Antonelli, who endured a far less stressful qualifying session this time round, was nearly three-tenths behind Russell but still have enough of a margin to be unchallenged for a spot on the front-row.

A rejuvenated Lando Norris was the leading contender behind the Mercedes duo in third and was in a more positive mood than this time last week in Australia.

The Reigning World Champion, albeit 0.641s behind Polesitter Russell, was happy to be ahead of the Ferrari drivers and upbeat that McLaren had made some progress in understanding how their power unit operates.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who won the Chinese Sprint Race last year, claimed fourth ahead of the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

The other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who looked to be the one to potentially challenge for a front-row start during the opening segments of Sprint Qualifying, wasn’t able to string his final lap together and instead ended up over a second off of Russell’s pole time in sixth.

Max Verstappen branded Red Bull’s Friday in China a “disaster” as the team lagged behind the likes of McLaren and Ferrari with the Dutchman frustrated about a lack of balance and the how his downshifts operated throughout the session.

The Four Time World Champion settled for eighth place but will line-up alongside Alpine’s Pierre Gasly who put in a remarkable lap to claim seventh.

Haas’s Oliver Bearman and the second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar rounded out the topflight of drivers.

Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Hass’s Esteban Ocon both narrowly missed out on a place within the top ten with Racing Bull’s Liam Lawson close behind with only a tenth of a second covering the span of six drivers vying for positions at the end of SQ2.

It was a triple double elimination in the first part of qualifying for Williams, Aston Martin and Cadillac as their drivers were unable to progress.

Williams led the pack with Carlos Sainz Jr ahead of team-mate Alexander Albon with Fernando Alonso the lead Aston Martin ahead of Lance Stroll while Valtteri Bottas was the sole Cadillac.

Cadillac’s Sergio Perez was unable to take part in the qualifying session due to a fuel system issue.