Norris took a fantastic pole for the sprint ahead of Hamilton and Alonso

After some strange first free practice sessions led by Lance Stroll, qualifying for the Sprint came with a lot of unknowns, very little running and, above all, with a 60% chance of rain. All the necessary ingredients to return to China after five years. The rain came at the moment of truth and the best person to handle it was Lando Norris. The British driver set the best time on the last lap (1:57.940) and grabbed the pole in extremis from Lewis Hamilton.

In its part, Fernando Alonso took the lead with just two minutes remaining but the two British drivers took advantage of the fact that they finished the lap shortly to improve the Asturian’s time and he finished third. Carlos Sainz will start fifth, just behind Max Verstappen.

The SQ3 was soaked and the drivers started on intermediate tires and under extreme caution. In fact, Leclerc spun in turn 9 and touched the wall with his SF-24. Verstappen and Alonso also left the track without consequences. It’s an ice track and no one has the ability to put the car in a perfect line.

The times went down every lap but logically the records were very high because the car control was very complex. Lando Norris clocked a 1:57.940 to take the lead but his time was removed shortly after. The surprise came The registration was returned to him as soon as the session ended and thus he achieved a pole that Hamilton and Mercedes were almost celebrating..

Alonso managed to improve his lap but it was not enough to catch the two Englishmen. In fact, Lando’s time was stratospheric, as he took 1.2 from Hamilton and almost two from Fernando.

One who had a lot of trouble putting together a good lap was Verstappen. In all the turns he left the track except his last attempt, which helped him to finish fourth. Sainz performed well and closed the Top5 2.2s behind Norris’ time.

Pérez was sixth while Leclerc, after his spin at the start of SQ3, saved the day to finish in seventh position. Piastri, Bottas and Zhou, the local idol who gave his best performance of the season, closed the Top10.

Disaster for Russell and Mamasyal

The start of SQ2 is when the chaos begins. The rain picked up and the drivers formed a caravan in the pit lane with medium tires to do a good lap before the track was ready for rain tires.

The great victim is George Russell. The Mercedes driver failed to set a good time and in his last attempt the rain intensified and despite great efforts it was impossible to lower the time. 38 thousandths separated him from Zhou in eleventh position

Another one who also ended up in disaster was Lance Stroll. The Canadian dominated the morning free practice but his qualifying was terrible and he finished 15th with poor management in the rain. Magnussen, Hülkenberg and Ricciardo.

Fire again at the beginning

At the end of SQ1 the grass caught fire again, just like it had in free practice in the morning. The reason is unknown but it happened twice in the same day. This was not noticeable in a first cut where the surprise was Yuki Tsunoda, who was eliminated in the penultimate spot just before Sargeant. Gasly, Ocon and Albon are the rest of the eliminations.