China - Sprint Qualifying

The race weekend in China is significantly different from the four we've seen so far this season. That is because it's the first one that features a sprint race. For those unfamiliar with the term, a sprint race is an additional, short race, held before Sunday's main event. It is around 100km long and usually takes around 30 minutes. It cannot go on for longer than an hour. 

It also changes the structure of the race weekend. On Friday, instead of two hour-long practice sessions, we only have one. The second is replaced by the qualifying for the sprint race, which only differs from the usual qualifying with the lengths of the sessions (Q1 is12 minutes long, Q2 10 minutes long, and Q3 only 8 minutes long). Saturday starts with the sprint and, after a few hours break, we tune in again for the main qualifying session of the weekend. Sunday remains unchanged, with the race as the only and main event. 

The first sprint Q1 of the season began with the two Williams' out on track, with other cars quickly following behind. Upon driving out, Piastri reported a few droplets of rain, unknowingly foreshadowing how the rest of the session would go. Throughout Q1 the Red Bulls topped the times with a significant gap to other reams. Norris was the only one who managed to catch up to them, finding himself between the two. Gasly, Ocon, Albon, Tsunoda, and Sargeant found themselves done for the day. It marked the first time that Gasly managed to outqualify his teammate since the season began. But, this time, seeing the checkered flag didn't mean that all the excitement was behind us, as Leclerc reported fire on the grass next to the track. This phenomenon was also seen during FP1 and meant that Q2 had to be slightly delayed. 

Since it was more than likely that it would start raining before the end of Q2, the 15 remaining drivers were eager to get on track as quickly as they could. They were right to do so since, with around three minutes left in the short session, the FIA declared the track as wet. The two Red Bull drivers managed to put in good laps before the weather worsened and, once again, found themselves in P1 and P3, this time with Leclerc between them. Russel fought hard for a spot in Q3, but just came short, ending up at P11. Magnussen, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, and Stroll also found themselves out of the next session. 

The rain was already quite severe by the time Q3 rolled around. The track was slippery and the grip was severely reduced which forced the drivers to bolt on the intermediate tires. Leclerc was quick to find out just how challenging the session would be as he fell out of the track during one of his first laps and grazed the barriers with his front wing. He wasn't the only one facing difficulties. It was very common for drivers to exceed track limits, which resulted in half of them not having times registered on their opening laps. Verstappen saw two of his times deleted for that exact offense and, for a while, it looked like he might not have a time on the board at all. In the end, he managed a clean lap that put him in P4 for tomorrow's sprint. And with him struggling to put the car on pole, tensions rose among the other drivers. Both Alonso and Hamilton put in great lap times, finding themselves in P1 and P2. Norris managed a marvelous lap of his own, one that would put him on pole if it wasn't for the fact that during his previous lap, he exceeded track limits, which meant both that and his next lap times would not be counted. Or so we thought since, just as Mercedes began their celebrations, a message came through that stated his time would be reinstated. That put the Brit in P1 and deservedly so since his time of 1:57:940 was more than a second quicker than that of Hamilton (1:59:940) and almost two seconds quicker than that of Alonso (1:59:915).

The rainy session brought with it a lot of emotions and even more surprises, no matter which team you root for. Chinese fans were delighted to see Zhou Guanyu enter Q3 in his home race and cheered when, for the first time this season, someone other than Max Verstappen took the pole. But will starting from the second row be enough to stop the Dutchman from winning tomorrow's sprint? Will we see Zhou scoring his first points in China? Will Lando Norris be able to convert his pole into a win? 

Order of the grid

1. Lando Norris

2. Lewis Hamilton

3. Fernando Alonso

4. Max Verstappen

5. Carlos Sainz

6. Sergio Perez

7. Charles Leclerc

8. Oscar Piastri

9. Valtteri Bottas

10. Zhou Guanyu

11. George Russel

12. Kevin Magnussen

13. Nico Hulkenberg

14. Daniel Ricciardo

15. Lance Stroll

16. Pierre Gasly

17. Esteban Ocon

18. Alex Albon

19. Yuki Tsunoda

20. Logan Sargeant