2024 Formula 1 Chinese GP: Max Verstappen takes pole, Hamilton out in Q1

Max Verstappen has continued his strong run of form after clinching a dominant pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix, taking Red Bull’s 100th pole in their history.

The Dutchman set the pace throughout the session at the Shanghai International Circuit and improved further in Q3, setting an unbeaten time of 1m 33.660s. While an exciting battle ensued for P2, it was Verstappen’s team mate Sergio Perez who took the position.

Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin in third, ahead of the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, while Charles Leclerc followed in sixth.

Carlos Sainz recovered from an earlier incident in Q2 – having spun into the barriers, bringing out the red flags in the process – to finish the session in P7, with George Russell the lead Mercedes in P8. Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas completed the top 10 in ninth and 10th respectively.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was eliminated in P11 after Bottas improved to get into the top 10, with the RB of Daniel Ricciardo suffering the same fate in P12.

Despite both getting into Q2 for the first time this season, the Alpine pair of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly ended up in P13 and P15 respectively, while the Williams of Alex Albon was sandwiched between them in P14.

There was a shock in Q1 as Lewis Hamilton found himself pushed into the drop zone, ending the session in P18. Zhou Guanyu was another name to exit early on in P16, with the Kick Sauber driver struggling for grip in front of his home fans.

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen found himself out in P17, while RB’s Yuki Tsunoda suffered a disappointing qualifying in P19 and Logan Sargeant ended the session in 20th and last for Williams.

2024 F1 Chinese GP: Qualifying Results

Pos	Driver	Nat.	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1m34.742s	1m33.794s	1m33.660s
2	Sergio Perez	MEX	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1m35.457s	1m34.026s	1m33.982s
3	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team	1m35.116s	1m34.652s	1m34.148s
4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1m34.842s	1m34.460s	1m34.165s
5	Oscar Piastri	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1m35.014s	1m34.659s	1m34.273s
6	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1m34.797s	1m34.399s	1m34.289s
7	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1m34.970s	1m34.368s	1m34.297s
8	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	1m35.084s	1m34.609s	1m34.433s
9	Nico Hulkenberg	GER	MoneyGram Haas F1 Team	1m35.068s	1m34.667s	1m34.604s
10	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber	1m35.169s	1m34.769s	1m34.665s
11	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team	1m35.334s	1m34.838s
12	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	Visa Cash App RB F1 Team	1m35.443s	1m34.934s
13	Esteban Ocon	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1m35.356s	1m35.223s
14	Alex Albon	THA	Williams Racing	1m35.384s	1m35.241s
15	Pierre Gasly	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1m35.287s	1m35.463s
16	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber	1m35.505s
17	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	MoneyGram Haas F1 Team	1m35.516s
18	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	1m35.573s
19	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	Visa Cash App RB F1 Team	1m35.746s
20	Logan Sargeant	USA	Williams Racing	1m36.358s

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