Formula 1 News: Verstappen storms to pole for Chinese GP

Max Verstappen put his #1 Red Bull Honda on pole for the 2024 Chinese GP, his 5th straight pole and the 100th ever for the Red Bull team.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Verstappen’s time of 1m33.660s beat his teammate Sergio Perez by 0.322s, and was 0.488s clear of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin in third.

Verstappen is the first driver in the 21st Century to take the first 5 poles of the season – the last driver to achieve this was Mika Häkkinen in 1999. It was Verstappen’s 37th career F1 pole.

The McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri rounded out the top-5, 0.505s and 0.613s behind respectively.

Charles Leclerc just nipped his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz Jr for 6th and 7th on the grid Sunday. Sainz recovered from an earlier incident in Q2 – having spun into the barriers, bringing out the red flags in the process

George Russell (Mercedes -8th ), Nico Hulkenberg (Haas- 9th), and Valtteri Bottas (Sauber) rounded out the top-10.  1.005s separated the top-10.

Russell was happy to again beat his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was knocked out in Q1 and will start 18th. It was a bad day for the bias British F1 media who saw Verstappen school their beloved Hamilton in the Sprint Race earlier, and then they had to see him knocked out of Q1 in GP qualifying.

“The car worked even better in Qualifying, that final lap felt pretty decent and very happy to drive here in the dry, it was a lot of fun.,” said Verstappen.

“Very intense, I nearly got knocked out in Q1,” said a happy Perez!

“Just made it through a very messy start to Qualifying. Q2 was mire straightforward, unfortunately in the end just not enough to get Max but it was a tremendous team result. We changed the car a lot to adapt to the conditions, so that should help for tomorrow.

“Everything to fight for tomorrow.”

“I had a moment in Turn 1 and 2, I nearly lost the car but didn’t give up, kept pushing and set a good lap time,” said third place Alonso.

“Extremely happy, proud of the team, we are not giving up – we are not in the position we want yet but we keep pushing.”

Disappointment for Ferrari and Mercedes today. Sixth and seventh for the Scuderia, eighth and 18th for Mercedes. Ouch.

American Logan Sargeant spun on his way to last place – P20 – as he sees his F1 career evaporating in each passing race. Not good enough for F1, he will likely have to step down to IndyCar next year.

• Eliminated in Q1: Zhou, Magnussen, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Sargeant
• Eliminated in Q2: Stroll, Ricciardo, Ocon, Albon, Gasly

As for Sunday, can Perez finally get the better of his teammate? He hasn’t beaten him in a race where they both finished since Azerbaijan last year.

Or can Alonso spring a surprise in that upgraded Aston? McLaren and Ferrari will want to get involved too, while Hulkenberg and Bottas will be desperately holding out for points.

2024 Chinese GP Qualifying Results