What happened in China F1 2026 sprint qualifying
George Russell’s clean sweep of every competitive 2026 Formula 1 session continued as he took a dominant sprint qualifying pole at the Chinese Grand Prix - but there's a question mark over the Mercedes' 1-2 on the grid.
Russell claimed his first-ever sprint race pole with a 1m31.520s, just under three tenths clear of Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli.
However, Antonelli’s second place on the grid has an asterisk in the shape of a stewards invesitgation into whether he impeded Lando Norris in SQ2 at Turn 1.
Norris was the top non-Mercedes in third in qualifying ahead of Lewis Hamilton as Ferrari switched to its more traditional rear wing, having parked its upside-down rear wing after FP1.
Oscar Piastri was fifth ahead of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.
Pierre Gasly was a superb seventh for Alpine, as he began to show the kind of form that was expected from Alpine’s Mercedes engine switch. Though he does face an impending investigation post-session for allegedly impeding Max Verstappen.
Red Bull survives SQ2 scare
Red Bull found itself scrapping with the leading midfield cars to get out of SQ2 and into the top 10 shootout.
But thankfully for Red Bull, Isack Hadjar appeared to be right on team-mate Verstappen’s pace in SQ2 as he lapped only 0.056s slower than Verstappen.
That proved critical as Verstappen and Hadjar were ninth and 10th in SQ2, with Hadjar narrowly beating Nico Hulkenberg's Audi by 0.015s.
Verstappen took eighth in SQ3 ahead of Ollie Bearman’s Haas, who survived multiple wide moments at the final corner to beat the Red Bulls.
Hadjar ultimately couldn’t beat his SQ2 time in SQ3, and ended up half a second adrift of Verstappen in 10th.
Hulkenberg will line up 11th ahead of Esteban Ocon’s Haas and Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls.
Gabriel Bortoleto was 14th in the second Audi ahead of rookie Arvid Lindblad and Franco Colapinto, who didn’t demonstrate pace in any way comparable to team-mate Pierre Gasly.
Double Williams exit in SQ1
Williams drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon were both knocked out in the first part of sprint qualifying, with Sainz the faster of the pair in 17th, 0.169s from safety.
Albon was a further half a second adrift of Sainz and just under three tenths clear of the faster Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.
Alonso’s team-mate Lance Stroll ended up 20th ahead of the Cadillac of Valtteri Bottas, who was 4.1s off the pace, seemingly losing speed on the back straight on his final flying lap.
Sergio Perez didn’t take part in sprint qualifying as Cadillac identified a fuel system issue during first practice that couldn’t be fixed in time.
