Antonelli becomes F1’s youngest polesitter in Chinese GP qualifying

Andrea Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix after Mercedes teammate George Russell was hamstrung by a car problem at the start of Q3.

Russell had looked like the comfortable favorite for pole position, but his session was derailed by a car problem that cropped up at the end of Q2, when the title leader reported his car felt broken and asked to have his front wing changed. He joined Q3 as usual, but his car then stopped on track on his out-lap.

The Englishman managed to restart his car and limp back to pit lane, but he reported that his car wouldn’t shift out of first gear, sending his engineers into a rapid diagnostic procedure to get his car back on track. Antonelli, meanwhile, had the run of the Shanghai International Circuit, taking provisional pole by 0.228s over McLaren’s Oscar Piastri following the first runs.

Back in the garage, Russell received a new steering wheel and made it onto the track just in time to start a lap as the last driver over the line.

Antonelli improved the benchmark to 1m 32.064s, and Ferrari teammates Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc both closed to within 0.4s of the provisional pole time – close enough to put a front-row start in doubt for the recovering Russell. The title leader had no issue beating the Ferrari cars, but his last-gasp effort wasn’t enough to pip his teammate, qualifying second with a deficit of 0.222s.

At 19 years, 6 months and 20 days old, Antonelli became the youngest grand prix polesitter in Formula 1 history, eclipsing Sebastian Vettel’s pole at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix by around 20 months.

“It was a pretty clean session,” he said. “I’m really happy.

“Of course George had an issue in Q3; it would’ve been cool to see him with two sets [of softs], but it was a really good session – clean, no mistakes. I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow.”

Russell lauded his team for the late Q3 recovery, saying the result could have been much worse than the front row.

“Definitely damage limitation,” he said. “I’m just really happy to be standing here, because at the start of the last lap I had no battery, no tire temp, nothing, but the team did a really good job to get us into this position. It could’ve been worse.”

Lewis Hamilton led an all-Ferrari second row, qualifying 0.351s off the pace. The Briton expressed optimism that the Italian team had closed the gap somewhat and that the race could be closer.

“I’m really, really happy to be up here and grateful to be up here with these [Mercedes] guys,” he said. “They’ve been rapid so far this season.

“We did some good work. The engineers did some great work over the break [after the sprint], and we managed to get a little bit closer to these guys.

“It’s going to be a challenge [in the race], but I’m sure we’ll have some fun. I’m looking forward to it.”

Leclerc was just 0.013s further back in fourth and around 0.1s ahead of Oscar Piastri, who leads an all-McLaren third row on the grid.

Pierre Gasly qualified an excellent seventh for Alpine, 0.809s off the pace and more than 0.1s ahead of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, the Red Bull Racing teammates, who seemed no closer to the front than in their scoreless Sprint performance.

Oliver Bearman completed the top 10 for Haas, the Briton 1.2s off the pace.

Nico Hulkenberg missed out on a spot in the top 10 by an agonizing 0.002s to qualify 11th ahead of Franco Colapinto, whose late flyer put him just 0.003s behind the Audi driver.

Esteban Ocon followed in 13th ahead of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad, whose final lap might have got him into the top 10 until Gabriel Bortoleto spun his Audi at the final corner. The Brazilian lost control of his car over the curbs and was momentarily beached, and the ensuing yellow flags effectively ended the session for most drivers.

Bortoleto will line up 16th, having also been on an improved lap before the spin.

Carlos Sainz came close to hauling himself into Q2 with a late flyer that propped him into the top 16, but his uncompetitive Williams inevitably slipped down the order to 17th as the first of those eliminated from Q1, his margin 0.178s.

Teammate Alex Albon followed almost half a second further back, the Thai driver frustratedly shouting ‘terrible!” over team radio as he returned to pit lane.

Fernando Alonso was a further half-second adrift in 19th, while Valtteri Bottas, driving for the new Cadillac team, outqualified Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin car, the margin between them almost 0.6s.

Sergio Perez propped up the order in 22nd after requiring repairs to his Cadillac following a bodywork failure late in the Sprint.

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