Hamilton takes first Ferrari pole for China sprint race

Hamilton has won the F1 world title seven times

Lewis Hamilton took his first pole position for Ferrari as he headed sprint qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Hamilton beat Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 0.018 seconds as McLaren's challenge faded around the Shanghai circuit and will start Saturday's sprint race from the front.

Oscar Piastri was third and Lando Norris, winner of the season-opening race in Australia last weekend, sixth behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Mercedes' George Russell.

This is Hamilton's first sprint race pole, and he has never won any of the previous 18 sprint races. His last full Grand Prix pole came in Hungary in 2023.

Norris had appeared to be on target to take sprint pole with a blistering first-sector time on a second run but braked too late for the hairpin at the end of the long back straight and ran wide, forcing him to abort the lap.

Mercedes' Andrea Kimi Antonelli was seventh, ahead of Racing Bulls' Yuki Tsunoda, Williams' Alex Albon and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll.

Hamilton, who was 0.208secs quicker than Leclerc, had a difficult first race with Ferrari in Melbourne and the seven-time champion said: "I'm a bit in shock. I can't believe we got a pole in the sprint. It's not the main race so we have some work to do for tomorrow.

"I didn't expect that result but so happy and so proud. The last race was a disaster for us. We knew there was more performance in the car. It came alive from lap one."

Ferrari qualified only seventh and eighth in Australia and both drivers struggled in the rain in the grand prix, finishing eighth and 10th.

They felt they had under-performed at Albert Park, losing pace in the final part of qualifying after being quick all weekend up to that point.

The team managed to get the car in a better set-up window in China, where Hamilton has won more races than any other driver, and the car's pace was transformed.

The sprint race, a shorter race about one third of the distance of a grand prix, is at 03:00 GMT time on Saturday, with qualifying for the main race following at 07:00.

Unlike Ferrari and Red Bull, McLaren went for two flying laps on their single set of tyres. Norris had a slide at Turn 13 on his first lap, followed by the error at the hairpin on his second.

Norris said: "I made a mistake, locked up in the last corner. We struggled a lot with the car. Not quick enough. The difficulties we have been struggling with showed a lot more today.

"Too many mistakes, too difficult our car to drive. We have been struggling with front locking and in the first corner with tail winds. When the wind is blowing, we struggle a lot more. Just pushing a bit hard to try to make up for not quite being quick enough."

Verstappen said he believed he had performed better than he expected after a difficult practice session.

"I am very happy," the world champion said. "I do think that in the first practice we were quite a bit off. So I am happy to be on the front row.

"The lap was very good. I don't think we should have been on the front row, so I am very happy with second.

"This is a little motivation boost for everyone. We keep nailing the laps, keep trying to maximise everything you've got and you need to do that when you are maybe struggling little bit more for pace

Piastri said: "Quick at the wrong points. Q1 and Q2 felt good but SQ3 we tried something different and went out much earlier and tried two laps which I'm not sure was the best thing in the end.

"The pace in the car is still very strong and I am still confident to fight from third tomorrow."

Leclerc said he had "struggled - from the beginning I felt I was a step back from Lewis and he was just faster today".

Outside the top 10, there was a strong performance from Briton Oliver Bearman for the Haas, taking 12th place, just behind Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso and six spots ahead of his experienced team-mate Esteban Ocon.

Bearman, whose team were the slowest in the field in Australia, said: "Happy with the feeling underneath me. From the first lap I knew it would be a better weekend than Melbourne. I felt better with the car and we managed to show a bit of pace out there."

There were strong performances from rookies Gabriel Bortoleto and Jack Doohan at Sauber and Alpine as both out-qualified their experienced team-mates Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg.

And Liam Lawson's agonising start to his Red Bull career continued as the New Zealander qualified last, complaining that he could not get his tyres to work.

He was about 0.3secs off Verstappen on their first runs in the first session, but made a mistake on his second lap at Turn Nine and had a half-spin, saying he had not managed to cool his tyres down sufficiently before he started his final attempt.