What happened in Chinese GP qualifying as Russell hits trouble
Kimi Antonelli claimed pole position for the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix, beating Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate George Russell to the top spot after Russell suffered a nightmare start to Q3.
Russell looked the favourite for pole heading into Q3 but stopped on track on his first out-lap, complaining of massive engine braking in his Mercedes. He managed to get the car going again but crawled to the pits saying “I cannot shift the gears”.
Mercedes managed to reset the car and fit a new steering wheel, allowing Russell to complete a single run at the end of the session, but he fell two tenths short of Antonelli’s 1m32.064s pole lap, making Antonelli the youngest driver to take pole for a grand prix and the first Italian since Giancarlo Fisichella in 2009.
Russell, whose front wing also broke at the end of Q2, described second place as “damage limitation”.
The Ferraris filled row two of the grid, with Lewis Hamilton narrowly ahead of Charles Leclerc and both just about within a four tenths margin to pole.
They trailed the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris after the first runs in Q3 but asserted themselves at the end as neither Piastri nor Norris managed to find time on their final runs.
Piastri was a tenth down on Leclerc in fifth, with Norris a further 0.058s back in sixth.
Pierre Gasly managed to beat both Red Bulls to claim seventh on the grid, having looked fast throughout qualifying and been inside the top six in Q2.
His Alpine-Mercedes was 0.265s down on the similarly-powered Norris McLaren and 0.129s up on the best of the Red Bulls, driven by Max Verstappen, though Isack Hadjar again qualified well, just 0.119s down on his illustrious team-mate.
Ollie Bearman rounded out the top 10 for Haas, just under two tenths down on Hadjar with a lap that was almost a tenth slower than Bearman managed in Q2.
Nico Hulkenberg’s Audi and Franco Colapinto’s Alpine both came agonisingly close to making the top 10 in Q2, as Hadjar survived by just 0.002s versus Hulkenberg and 0.005s versus Colapinto.
Esteban Ocon’s Haas, the two Racing Bulls and Gabriel Bortoleto’s Audi were the other four cars eliminated in Q2.
Ocon, Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad all had to abort their final flying laps after Bortoleto went off at the final corner and brought out double-waved yellow flags.
The bottom six places in Q1 were filled by the overweight Williamses, the struggling Aston Martin-Hondas and the under-developed Cadillacs.
Carlos Sainz’s Williams came closest to making it through to Q2, but late improvements from Colapinto and Lindblad ensured Sainz was a little under two tenths away from making the cut, despite what he and team boss James Vowles agreed was a “good lap” and the limit of what that car can do right now.
Sainz's team-mate Alex Albon was a further four tenths back and sounded extremely frustrated on team radio.
There was a further half a second separating Albon from Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin-Honda, while Valterri Bottas impressively split the Aston Martins in the best of the Cadillacs, as team-mate Sergio Perez was cut adrift at the very back of the grid by almost a second.
