Winners and losers from F1's 2026 China sprint qualifying

The first sprint qualifying session of Formula 1’s new era produced some notable form swings from the 2026 season opener just a week ago.

Here’s our pick of the Chinese Grand Prix sprint qualifying winners and losers.

Loser - Red Bull (8th & 10th)

Red Bull can be happy that Isack Hadjar has started life at Red Bull close to Max Verstappen, but that’s where the positives end today.

Verstappen repeatedly complained of poor gear shifts, a lack of drivability, and the cameras showed an exit from Turn 16 in SQ1 where his car almost spun under the immense power being sent through the rear wheels.

And Hadjar’s session got even worse. He was slower in SQ3 than he was the session before, and was beaten by Ollie Bearman’s Haas. The potential was there to do better but Hadjar couldn't access it.

It’s clear that this team needs to do a lot of work to rediscover its race-winning form of 2025. - Jack Benyon

Winner - McLaren (3rd & 5th)

To allow the cliche for a second, it's not where McLaren wants to be: 0.621s and 0.704s off pole achieved by a car with the same power unit (albeit clearly one being exploited at a different level).

But McLaren must be realistic about where it is. And speaking realistically, it has gone from being embarrassed by Ferrari and barely hanging on against Red Bull in Australia last week to embarrassing Red Bull and giving Ferrari a real run for its money in China today.

Having its two drivers within a tenth of a second (which they also were in Australia!) is also a nice continuation of 2025 and something that basically no other team can boast right now as these new regs balloon some team-mate gaps and throw weekends into chaos. - Val Khorounzhiy

Winner - Lewis Hamilton (4th)

What Lewis Hamilton's performances across Australia and China promised last year, the rest of the season very much didn't deliver. So let's not get carried away here.

But this is shaping up as an extremely potent weekend for the seven-time champion, who has looked a 50/50 shot at being the quicker Ferrari driver in every given session under these rules so far.

It's a tiny sample set but a very positive yield after a poor 2025 and an uncertain pre-season. - VK

Loser - Williams (17th & 18th)

There were already plenty of hints throughout the Bahrain tests and Melbourne, but in Shanghai Williams seems firmly cut adrift of the midfield as the clear ninth fastest car. 

Even a tardy lap from Franco Colapinto (six tenths slower than Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly in SQ1) wasn’t enough for either Carlos Sainz or Alex Albon to snag a place in SQ2. 

That’s pretty damning of the plight Williams finds itself in right now, with an overweight, uncompetitive FW48 that’s probably been spared some blushes by the Aston Martin-Honda being in an even worse state. 

But right now, without improvements, either car scoring points would be a miracle. - Josh Suttill

Winner - Ollie Bearman (9th)

If you tuned in, had no access to timing and just saw Ollie Bearman run wide at the final corner repeatedly you might be forgiven for thinking he was way down the order.

But he matched Alpine’s Gasly in beating the Red Bulls in SQ2 and split them in SQ3, beating Hadjar.

Such was the separation of the field in SQ2 that Bearman, in eighth, was only just over a tenth quicker than Haas team-mate Esteban Ocon in 12th. One made SQ3 and the other didn't.

That seemingly sharper execution from Bearman - unless Ocon had an issue - is what separates you on the timing sheets and in people’s memories. An excellent performance from Bearman who continues to impress after finishing seventh in Melbourne. - JB

Loser - Franco Colapinto (16th)

What Alpine’s delivering at Shanghai is far more the kind of midfield-leading heroics its Mercedes engine gamble promised. Unfortunately, that leap forward is consigned to one car right now. 

Colapinto was six tenths off team-mate Gasly in SQ1 and then nine tenths off in SQ2.

It might be Colapinto's first time racing here, but given rookie and Shanghai first-timer Arvid Lindblad was three tenths off his Racing Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson having missed most of practice, more has to be expected of Colapinto. 

It’s a little too similar to the Gasly deficit that put Colapinto’s future in doubt last year. - JS

Winner - Pierre Gasly (7th)

As is often the case with Alpine it’s tough to tell just how exceptional Gasly is versus the somewhat frequent disappointment of team-mate Colapinto’s performances.

With Colapinto out in SQ2, Gasly just seemed to get better and better, beating both Red Bulls to take seventh as the best of the rest behind Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari.

Amid suggestions of a Mercedes buy-in to the team off the track and the team saying its design has an aerodynamic "injury" that leaves it struggling with high-speed understeer at the start of 2026, China’s low and medium-speed layout was a chance for Alpine to rebound from a relatively disappointing start in Melbourne, and it’s done just that so far.

But only with Gasly, who really needs a stronger team-mate as a benchmark. Nevertheless he is clearly operating at an extremely high level. - JB

Loser - Cadillac (21st & 22nd)

Based on practice, Cadillac looked like it could have realistically challenged Aston Martin in SQ1, but a fuel system issue meant Sergio Perez couldn’t even take part in qualifying. 

Valtteri Bottas did take part but had a “big issue on each lap”, which meant it was a “waste of a session”. 

With one car out before the session even started and the other heavily compromised, this looked far more like a brand new team taking part in qualifying than Cadillac’s more respectable Australia debut. - JS

Winner - George Russell (1st)

George Russell is living every F1 driver's dream right now - a dominant car and a team-mate who just isn't at his level (yet).

His pole position looked profoundly routine, and his reaction at the flag was accordingly par-for-the-course.

It's too long a season for it to look this easy throughout, but right now every single driver would swap their situation for Russell's. Which isn't to say that he's got lucky - Russell has put in the work in under-par Mercedes cars (by their lofty standards) and is now reaping the rewards. - VK