2026 Chinese Grand Prix Qualifying Review

Linus O'Howell
1 day ago
2 min read

With the Sprint over for the weekend, the focus switched to Qualifying ahead of tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix!

Q1

In Qualifying 1, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Lance Stroll, and Sergio Perez were the six slowest drivers! Williams’ terrible start to the season continued, with Carlos Sainz again clear of Alex Albon, whilst Fernando Alonso found himself in his usual position of “best of the worst”! Amazingly, Valtteri Bottas managed to make history as the first Cadillac driver to outqualify another car on pure pace, beating Lance Stroll to P20, and speaking of Stroll, 8 tenths off his teammate is simply not good enough! Sergio Perez will start tomorrow’s Race from the back of the grid, and Checo too was incredibly poor, some 1.5 seconds off his teammate! Charles Leclerc actually managed to top Q1 for Ferrari, less than a tenth ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes!

Q2

In Qualifying 2, Nico Hulkenberg, Franco Colapinto, Esteban Ocon, Liam Lawson, Arvid Lindblad, and Gabriel Bortoleto all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout! Nico Hulkenberg’s streak of qualifying 11th continued, with the German being just 2 thousandths off making it into Q3, whilst Franco Colapinto only missed out by 5 thousandths of a second! Esteban Ocon, Liam Lawson, and Arvid Lindblad were all unlucky as they were unable to complete their final run due to Gabriel Bortoleto spinning into the wall at the final corner! The Top 2 reversed in this session, with Antonelli heading Leclerc!

Q3

In Qualifying 3, a massive 1:32.064 was enough for Andrea Kimi Antonelli to make history as the youngest Pole sitter in Formula 1 history! Kimi Antonelli did everything he needed to do, taking advantage of issues for his teammate to take his first Grand Prix Pole! Many things plagued George Russell’s untouchable start, but he was still able to achieve a front row start, with Lewis Hamilton narrowly pipping Charles Leclerc to third in a Ferrari 3-4! McLaren will start from the third row of the grid, with Oscar Piastri heading Lando Norris, whilst Pierre Gasly put in another sensational showing to stick his Alpine up in 7th! There were more woes for Red Bull, with Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar only managed P8 and P9 respectively, whilst Oliver Bearman earned himself another Top 10 start!