Formula 1 recap: China sprint race and qualifying from Shanghai
All the action of Formula 1’s China sprint race and grand prix qualifying, from Shanghai International Circuit.
That's all folks
Alex Powell
That'll be it from us tonight. Do be sure to come back at 8pm tomorrow, where we'll have live coverage of the Chinese Grand Prix.
See you then!
Qualifying report
Alex Powell
Starting grid for the Chinese Grand Prix
Christopher Reive
- Kimi Antonelli - Mercedes
- George Russell - Mercedes
- Lewis Hamilton - Ferrari
- Charles Leclerc - Ferrari
- Oscar Piastri - McLaren
- Lando Norris - McLaren
- Pierre Gasly - Alpine
- Max Verstappen - Red Bull
- Isack Hadjar - Red Bull
- Oliver Bearman - Haas
- Nico Hulkenberg - Audi
- Franco Colapinto - Alpine
- Esteban Ocon - Alpine
- Liam Lawson - Racing Bulls
- Arvid Lindblad - Racing Bulls
- Gabriel Bortoleto - Audi
- Carlos Sainz - Williams
- Alex Albon - Williams
- Fernando Alonso - Aston Martin
- Valtteri Bottas - Cadillac
- Lance Stroll - Aston Martin
- Sergio Perez - Cadillac
Kimi Antonelli takes pole!
Christopher Reive
The youngest pole sitting in F1 history. George Russell joins his teammate on the front row.
Alex Powell
Russell goes second! Kimi Antonelli is the youngest polesitter in grand prix history!
Alex Powell
Hadjar pips Bearman for seventh, before Verstappen takes it from his teammate.
Russell is still out there.
Alex Powell
Hamilton takes second, but is 0.351s back from Antonelli.
Bearman takes seventh, for now.
Alex Powell
Antonelli improves! He clocks 1m 32.064s to take provisional pole.
Who can catch him? Not Norris or Leclerc.
Alex Powell
Just over two minutes left on the clock. Russell has emerged from the garage, but he has no room for error if he wants pole from here.
Alex Powell
All 10 remaining drivers back in the garage.
We're waiting to see if Russell will be able to manage a lap, but he's up against it as the clock ticks under 5 minutes.
Alex Powell
Norris puts himself between Antonelli and the Ferraris, before Piastri goes and takes P2!
Russell now back in the pits, as Verstappen can only manage sixth.
Alex Powell
Neither of the Ferraris can pip Antonelli.
Leclerc second and Hamilton third, as Russell returns to the track for his out lap.
Christopher Reive
George Russell is going again but he's having trouble with his gears. That opens the door for Kimi Antonelli, surely.
Q3
Christopher Reive
Drama for George Russell, who is parked up with no battery. that's huge in the context of the race if he can't get it fixed.
Lawson team radio
Christopher Reive
The Kiwi is not happy, and understandable too. He loses the chance to have one final attempt at improving his lap and he'll start 14th in tomorrow's race.
Double yellow flag
Christopher Reive
Gabriel Bortoleto goes into the gravel which ruins Lawson's final push lap.
Mercedes at the top
Christopher Reive
It's Kimi Antonelli at the top of the pack now, 1m 32.443s
Christopher Reive
Well, for Lawson, 1m 33.325s is the time to beat.
Leclerc goes top
Christopher Reive
1m 32.486s is the time to beat.
Lawson returns
Christopher Reive
A little bit of strategy chat with the race engineer and Lawson gets back out on to the track. Let's see if he can improve his time.
Box, box
Christopher Reive
Pit stop for Lawson
Lawson's first push lap
Christopher Reive
1m 33.765s - only good enough for 14th at this point.
Early times
Christopher Reive
Russell leads the way - 1m 32.523s.
Q2 is under way
Christopher Reive
Lawson is yet to leave the garage
Alex Powell
Sneakily, Q1 was the first session since FP3 in Melbourne that George Russell didn't top.
Lawson team radio
Christopher Reive
"I struggled on the last lap on this tyre"
Out in Q1
Christopher Reive
Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll - Aston Martin
Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon - Williams
Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas - Cadillac
Final laps of Q1
Christopher Reive
Lawson sneaks into Q2 with the last of the 16 spots - a comfortable 0.178s to spare...
Three minutes left
Christopher Reive
Lindblad is getting back out there. He's currently holding the last spot in Q2.
If it finished now, both Williams, Aston Martins and Cadillacs would be out.
Issue for Lindblad
Christopher Reive
Not ideal for the young Racing Bulls driver.
Liam Lawson on the other hand has just improved his time and jumped into the top 10.
George Russell goes fastest
Christopher Reive
1m 33.363s is the top time for the Mercedes diver. That car sure is good.
Lawson gets back out there
Christopher Reive
He's on softs, and comes out more than 1s above the drop zone.
Halfway through Q1
Alex Powell
Lawson back in the garage, and has dropped to ninth on the leaderboard.
He is 1.607s clear of the drop, though.
Current fastest
Christopher Reive
Max Verstappen (Red Bull) holds the fastest time at 1m 34.490s.
Liam Lawson sits in sixth at the moment.
Christopher Reive
This time yesterday, Lawson's best effort in sprint qualifying was a 1m 33.714s.
Lap times starting to come in
Christopher Reive
Liam Lawson's 1m34.731s is the time to beat.
Tyres
Alex Powell
Both Red Bull cars and Lewis Hamilton are operating on medium tyres, the rest are on softs.
Three cars yet to emerge
Christopher Reive
Sergio Perez (Cadillac) and Mercedes duo George Russell and Kimi Antonelli are both still in the pits.
We are under way in Q1
Christopher Reive
A long line of cars sit at the pit exit to get out on the track.
All starters ready
Alex Powell
All drivers forced to retire from the sprint race - Hulkenberg, Bottas and Lindblad - appear ready to go for qualifying.
Interestingly, Red Bull appear to have made a change to Max Verstappen's car.
He could only manage ninth in the sprint, after stalling on the start line, but showed in Melbourne that he's still probably the best pound for pound driver on the grid.
Interesting comments from Lawson
Christopher Reive
"Now we're one [set of hard tyres] down. I think, honestly, when we made the decision this morning we had to think about our speed.
"Yesterday we did quite a good job and that was where we were, so we tried to maximise today and take the advantage. Tomorrow will be hard for us to fight for the points. We'll need to find some speed, which we'll try to do this afternoon [in qualifying] but it potentially hurts us a little bit."
That will do for the blog for now
Christopher Reive
We'll be back from 7pm in preparation for qualifying, which gets under way at 8pm.
We'll see you back here then.
A report on the race
Christopher Reive
Courtesy of Alex Powell
Lawson team radio
Christopher Reive
"That's the checkered flag. Well done, Liam. Well done. That is what we wanted."
"That was hard man," Lawson responded. "F***in' safety car killed us."
He adds: "Really good job. Very good call, thank you guys."
Oh, and George Russell won
Christopher Reive
Probably should mention that.
Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were second and third respectively.
LAWSON IN THE POINTS
Christopher Reive
It's seventh of Liam Lawson and that's two points in the bag.
Final lap
Christopher Reive
Lawson holding seventh after Antonelli gets around him.
Piastri on the move
Christopher Reive
The McLaren is into fifth, overtaking Bearman and Lawson.
Antonelli complains that Piastri overtook him before the race proper was under way again.
And away we go
Christopher Reive
Russell gets things back up to speed. Let's see if Lawson can hold his spot.
Safety car coming in
Christopher Reive
We've got a very interesting finish coming up.
Lawson team radio
Christopher Reive
"We're going so f***ing slow. They need to speed up," Lawson says.
The safety car is still out there with four laps remaining.
Three cars out
Christopher Reive
Hulkenberg (Audi), Valterri Bottas (Cadillac) and Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) have all retired from the race.
Five laps remaining
Christopher Reive
Lawson is asked to keep the tyres warm as best he can behind the safety car.
Lawson is currently P5; but he's got quicker cars like Piastri and Antonelli behind him on softs.
Yellow flag
Christopher Reive
Nico Hulkenberg has gone off the track and is stopped.
That could be great for Lawson if the yellow flag sees the grid close up behind the safety car, but with cars taking the opportunity to pit for soft tyres, he could be a sitting duck.
He's going to stay out there though.
Lawson team radio
Christopher Reive
"Liam, this is P7. We nurse it until the end now."
He's 13.5s behind sixth-placed Piastri and 2s ahead of eighth-placed Bearman.
Another overtake
Christopher Reive
Hard tyre choice appears to be paying off as Lawson hoons past Oliver Bearman's Haas down the straight with ease. No driver has made more overtakes today than Lawson.
Lawson into eighth!
Christopher Reive
The Kiwi gets by his former teammate Isack Hadjar and up into a points position.
Russell takes over
Christopher Reive
The Mercedes is now more than 3s clear of the Ferrari's, who appear to be racing each other for second and third.
Antonelli's penalty
Christopher Reive
As it stands, Lawson wouldn't get ahead of Antonelli after the penalty as he's more than 10s behind the Mercedes. Right now, that looks like the mark for Lawson to score a point.
Halfway through the race
Christopher Reive
No messing around in the sprint - just 19 laps to work with.
10s time penalty
Christopher Reive
Antonelli is hit with a big penalty for causing a collision.
Russell leads again
Christopher Reive
He's ahead of Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, with McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in fourth and fifth.
Lawson into ninth
Christopher Reive
The Kiwi gets past Pierre Gasly's Alpine on lap five.
Great battle at the front
Christopher Reive
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are going back and forth in the lead through four laps.
Hamilton leads at the moment, with Russell 0.4s back.
Lawson into 10th
Christopher Reive
Solid start for the Kiwi and he has climbed three places in three laps.
Lawson team radio
Christopher Reive
"Isack [Hadjar] in front. He may have damage."
Lindblad spins out!
Christopher Reive
Liam Lawson's Racing Bulls' stablemate is running in 22nd after it appeared he had contact with someone.
Oh never mind
Christopher Reive
Russell has taken the lead back.
Lewis Hamilton takes the lead
Christopher Reive
George Russell got off to a solid start, but smart work from Hamilton there.
And we're under way
Christopher Reive
Terrible start for Kimi Antonelli; he can only watch as Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton get ahead of him.
Lawson starts on hard tyres
Alex Powell
Interesting. Lawson, Sainz and Alonso are the only drivers on hard tyres. Hadjar is on softs.
All others are on mediums. Lawson is potentially saving his mediums for the race.
The drivers are off on their formation lap.
Alex Powell
No word yet on Hadjar, can only assume that means he's free to race from 10th.
Lawson's disadvantage
Alex Powell
The Kiwi starts 13th to his teammate Arvid Lindblad's 13th today.
But, as we saw last week, the 18-year-old's lack of experience might actually put him in a better place than Lawson.
Albon starts from pit lane
Alex Powell
And there we go, Albon will start from pit lane.
Williams have changed the suspension on his car under Parc Ferme.
Albon had qualified 18th.
Issues for Albon?
Alex Powell
The Williams is the only car not on the grid, with less than 20 minutes to lights out.
Albon's car is still in the garage, with issues having plagued the team across the first two weeks of the new season.
Will he make it to the start line on time?
Early penalty?
Alex Powell
Red Bull's Isack Hadjar has been noted for failing to follow the race director's instructions on his way to the grid.
We're yet to see if that will trigger a penalty and see him drop down the grid.
He qualified 10th yesterday, so could in theory fall to 15th if a grid drop is applied.
Last time out
Alex Powell
Hard to believe it's not even been a week since Melbourne.
There, Lawson qualified eighth, but dropped down the field as the lights went out, thanks to a battery issue.
He was able to fight back to 13th, but there will be worries the battery problem hasn't been fixed - especially after the same thing happened after practice yesterday.
Christopher Reive
Christopher Reive
Sprint quali report
Alex Powell
Good afternoon, and welcome to the Herald's coverage of today's sprint race, and grand prix qualifying.
Yesterday was interesting, in the fact drivers had just once practice session across the whole weekend to get used to the track and their new cars.
They'll get another 19 laps in the sprint, before qualifying itself.
But, as we saw in Melbourne last week, anything is possible.
Alex Powell
Saturday schedule:
Sprint race: 4pm start
Qualifying: 8pm start
Lawson to start 13th in China sprint but power woes return
Liam Lawson will start Formula One’s China sprint race in 13th, after being eliminated in the second stage of qualifying in Shanghai.
A year on from qualifying last in both the sprint and grand prix at the same race weekend, the Kiwi has shown considerable improvement - admittedly in a more driver-friendly car.
The 24-year-old missed out on a top 10 start for the shorter, 19 lap race by just 0.094s, but managed to outqualify rookie teammate Arvid Lindblad (15th) for the second time in succession.
However, after his Australian Grand Prix last week was dogged by a power issue that saw him stutter off the start line, Lawson suffered a recurrence of the same problem in the weekend’s only practice session, after posting the 11th fastest time.
Both Lawson and Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane said before the race weekend that the issue had been identified and fixed.
“We’ve made a good step from practice to quali with the set-up,” said Lawson. “We just struggled a bit more here than last week.
“Melbourne really suited our car. Here it’s not as good for us. We need to do some work for tomorrow.
“In terms of set-up, I actually felt quite happy.”
Now, though, the Kiwi must wait until lights out on Saturday afternoon in the hope his power issues don’t continue to haunt him.
After winning in Melbourne last week, Mercedes’ George Russell topped every sprint qualifying session to claim pole, while teammate Kimi Antonelli saw the team lock out the front row in second.
Russell’s time of 1m 31.520s saw him 0.289s clear of Antonelli, and 0.621s in front of world champion Lando Norris, who’ll start third.
Antonelli could be dropped further down the grid, though, and is being investigated by the stewards for appearing to impede Norris earlier in qualifying.
The China sprint race begins at 4pm (NZT) on Saturday.
Earlier, Lawson enjoyed a solid, solitary practice session, despite the return of the same power problems from Melbourne, and posted a best time of 1m 34.773s from his 29 laps.
“Mate, I don’t know what to do?” the Kiwi was heard telling race engineer Alexandre Iliopoulos, after his engine failed to fire from a stationary start.
Lawson’s best effort saw him miss the top 10 by just 0.097s to Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in 10th and was over two seconds off the pace set by Russell, who topped the timing charts again with a lap of 1m 32.741s.
However, things were not as simple for Lindblad. Following points on debut in Melbourne with an eighth-placed finish, the 18-year-old could only manage six laps, before having to stop after smoke from his power unit was seen in Lindblad’s cockpit.
The teenager’s best effort was 3.123s slower than Lawson, and more than five seconds back from Russell.