\n<\/p>\n
George Russell led team-mate Kimi Antonelli as Mercedes dominated qualifying for the sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix.<\/b><\/p>\n
Russell was 0.289 seconds clear of the Italian and a massive 0.621secs ahead of the first non-Mercedes, world champion Lando Norris in the McLaren.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton was fourth for Ferrari, just 0.02secs slower than Norris, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took fifth ahead of the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.<\/p>\n
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen could manage only eighth place, 1.734secs off the pace and behind the Alpine of Pierre Gasly.<\/p>\n
Haas’ Oliver Bearman was ninth ahead of the second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar.<\/p>\n
Russell’s pole was his second in six days after he took pole and win in the season-opening race in Australia.<\/p>\n
And the qualifying session followed a very similar pattern to Melbourne – Russell about 0.3secs quicker than Antonelli and the quickest Ferrari a similar chunk further behind.<\/p>\n
Russell said: “The car has been really great all day and the engine is performing more normal compared to Melbourne when you had these big de-rates (when the engine switches to energy-recovery mode) and it was a bit challenging to drive. The focus since Melbourne has been about improving the starts.”<\/p>\n
Norris, who had a difficult race in Melbourne, said: “I’m happy with the result. P3 is as good as we can do for the time being, pretty happy to beat both Ferraris. A good lap and puts me in a good position for tomorrow.”<\/p>\n
Hamilton, who had spun in practice earlier in the day, added: “Really pleased with the session. P1 was a tricky session with a spin. <\/p>\n
“We are losing a lot of time on the straights, we have a lot of work to do to improve on power. <\/p>\n
“Mercedes have done a fantastic job and we have to step up and push to close the gap. Car-wise the car feels great and we can compete in the corners but when you’re down on power it is the way it is.”<\/p>\n
In Australia, the Ferrari was much more competitive in the race, in which Leclerc leapt into the lead from fourth place on the grid at the start.<\/p>\n
Leclerc said he had lost 0.5secs on the back straight on his final run – more than the gap between himself and Hamilton.<\/p>\n
“In qualifying for some reason the Mercedes power-unit finds a lot of lap time,” he said, “but in the race we are much closer.”<\/p>\n
The big outliers were Red Bull. Hadjar qualified third in Australia but both cars were way off the pace in Shanghai.<\/p>\n
Verstappen, who crashed on his first lap in Australia after his rear brakes locked at the first corner, did at least complete a session and was nearly 0.5secs ahead of his team-mate.<\/p>\n
But that will be no consolation for the four-time champion when the gap to the front is so large.<\/p>\n
Verstappen said: “The whole day has been a disaster pace-wise, no grip, no balance, just losing massive amounts of time in the corners and then because of that you start triggering other problems.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n