Lewis Hamilton may have pulled off a surprise pole position for the sprint race, but when it came to qualifying proper the Ferraris slipped back to the third row of the grid.
That’s one row better than they managed in Australia but still a disappointment for their drivers. “We’re just not fast enough,” Charles Leclerc told Viaplay after qualifying, echoing his words of one week ago. “The potential of the car is just not there.”That may be so, but the gaps between the leading teams is still impressively slim, and the difference between some of the midfielders is almost non-existent.
Teams’ performance
Unlike in Australia, Ferrari at least managed to avoid getting sniped by a couple of midfielders this time, and therefore ranked fourth-quickest once qualifying was done.
Racing Bulls showed great pace around Shanghai, getting within a quarter of a second of the senior Red Bull team. Behind Williams there was almost nothing to separate Haas, Aston Martin and Sauber.
Alpine sank back to the position they found themselves in last year, and by quite a margin, too. It remains to be seen whether, on a weekend where teams have been alarmed by higher than expected tyre degradation, they or anyone else have sacrificed one-lap performance in favour of a set-up which will ease the strain on their rubber.
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Sector times
Esteban Ocon deserves special mention for hauling his VF-25 up to 11th, having come closer than most to stitching his three best sector times together. George Russell grabbed a surprise place on the front row with a tidy lap as well.
| P. | # | Driver | S1 | S2 | S3 | Ultimate lap (deficit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | 23.984 (3) | 27.163 (1) | 39.418 (1) | 1’30.565 (+0.076) |
| 2 | 4 | Lando Norris | 23.954 (2) | 27.257 (7) | 39.435 (3) | 1’30.646 (+0.141) |
| 3 | 1 | Max Verstappen | 23.945 (1) | 27.238 (6) | 39.523 (4) | 1’30.706 (+0.111) |
| 4 | 63 | George Russell | 24.068 (5) | 27.221 (5) | 39.434 (2) | 1’30.723 |
| 5 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | 24.070 (6) | 27.175 (2) | 39.604 (6) | 1’30.849 (+0.078) |
| 6 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | 24.094 (8) | 27.320 (9) | 39.572 (5) | 1’30.986 (+0.035) |
| 7 | 6 | Isack Hadjar | 24.127 (9) | 27.213 (4) | 39.660 (8) | 1’31.000 (+0.079) |
| 8 | 12 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | 24.176 (14) | 27.301 (8) | 39.626 (7) | 1’31.103 |
| 9 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | 24.171 (13) | 27.203 (3) | 39.759 (9) | 1’31.133 (+0.105) |
| 10 | 23 | Alexander Albon | 24.170 (12) | 27.477 (11) | 39.789 (10) | 1’31.436 (+0.067) |
| 11 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | 24.080 (7) | 27.481 (13) | 39.895 (14) | 1’31.456 (+0.176) |
| 12 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | 24.067 (4) | 27.539 (16) | 39.866 (12) | 1’31.472 (+0.216) |
| 13 | 18 | Lance Stroll | 24.133 (11) | 27.391 (10) | 40.039 (19) | 1’31.563 (+0.210) |
| 14 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 24.231 (15) | 27.480 (12) | 39.859 (11) | 1’31.570 (+0.058) |
| 15 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | 24.244 (16) | 27.489 (14) | 39.890 (13) | 1’31.623 (+0.002) |
| 16 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | 24.128 (10) | 27.601 (18) | 40.029 (16) | 1’31.758 (+0.234) |
| 17 | 5 | Gabriel Bortoleto | 24.318 (17) | 27.517 (15) | 40.071 (20) | 1’31.906 (+0.235) |
| 18 | 87 | Oliver Bearman | 24.427 (19) | 27.599 (17) | 39.992 (15) | 1’32.018 |
| 19 | 7 | Jack Doohan | 24.407 (18) | 27.652 (20) | 40.030 (17) | 1’32.089 (+0.003) |
| 20 | 30 | Liam Lawson | 24.522 (20) | 27.622 (19) | 40.030 (17) | 1’32.174 |
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Teams’ improvement
Racing Bulls made the biggest year-on-year improvement of any team in Shanghai. But Williams look in good shape too, as this is the second week running they’ve posted the second-largest gain of any team, on two very different circuits.
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Field performance
When F1 returned to Shanghai last season, following a five-year absence, the cars lapped slower than they did when the championship first visited the track two decades earlier.
Their performance around the re-laid, ultra-smooth course has been a shock to the system for many. Oscar Piastri’s pole-winning lap was three seconds quicker than the best time seen last year and four tenths of a second under the former record set by Sebastian Vettel in 2018.
“The track’s like a bowling alley at the moment, super smooth,” said Russell after qualifying. “Like here and like Jeddah, that’s like the gold standard of resurfacing that the drivers want because it’s so enjoyable to drive and it’s so quick.”
Saturday’s sprint race was dominated by tyre management and some teams have reworked their set-ups to prepare for that in the grand prix. However as no driver has run the hard tyre compound yet it remains to be seen how hard they’ll be able to push in the grand prix.
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2025 Chinese Grand Prix
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Jere (@jerejj)
22nd March 2025, 14:43
The 2004 edition was faster than the 2024 edition only in race-trim.
Edvaldo
22nd March 2025, 14:57
I don’t expect Russell to finish ahead of them. This lap of his has “hero lap” all over it.
adqm
22nd March 2025, 19:08
yeah I agree with you. it’s clear russell & Mercedes set up their car to get pole postion as have mclaren. Meanwhile Ferrari & verstappan have set their cars up for the race too look after there tyres. Ferrari would have the data from Hamilton on clear air & leclerc in dirty air and would have definitely went for a race set up. I also believe Toto is bitter enough to sacrifice race pace so they could get russell ahead of Hamilton in qualifying. Also Ferrari & redbull will have the advantage of pitting early and forcing the mclarens & russell to have to respond.
DaveW (@dmw)
22nd March 2025, 15:35
I think that if McLaren didn’t scuff their sprint q3 laps it looks roughly same. Hamilton beat verstappen by a whisker last time only and Russell did a mega lap. Frankly I see no real difference in respect of form or race prospects versus yesterday. Except of course Ferrari will have to pass people. The question mark is Leclerc who could not handle the graining in the sprint.
BasCB (@bascb)
23rd March 2025, 6:41
Yeah, for me the main takeaway is that it just VERY close and all depends on getting the tyres warmed up, avoiding mistakes and just getting all sectors together in a single lap.
MichaelN
22nd March 2025, 16:01
Ferrari and Mercedes being behind Red Bull and McLaren, while disappointing, is not exactly unexpected. So depending on how well the Mercedes drivers do, Hamilton and Leclerc are bound to end up somewhere P5-P8. The sprint qualifying was an outlier in that both McLaren drivers and Lawson didn’t deliver.
adam
22nd March 2025, 19:13
I bet you both leclerc & Hamilton finish ahead of russell. Mercedes saw that racing in clear air is a huge advantage so went all out to get pole. While verstappan & Ferrari have went for race setup to protect the tyres. Mclaren think if they get pole they can manage the pace & protect their tyres but they can’t as it allows redbull & Ferrari to pit early & undercut them. I also believe that Toto is bitter enough to sacrifice race pace so they could out quality Ferrari. Lando is going to do something dumb as he is a bottler.
MichaelN
22nd March 2025, 23:40
Possible that’s how the race will go. Ferrari, and especially Hamilton, looked better in the sprint on tyres. Part of that is no doubt the bonus of being up front, but even so, Leclerc still seemed pretty racey towards the end and he didn’t have much clean air at all.
With the field so close, it’ll be interesting to see how qualifying and race differences play out over the next couple of races. Even if you have great race pace, you can lose a lot of time starting P6.
Renee (@renee)
23rd March 2025, 10:40
Well that one didn’t age well at all. Why are you so bitter and hating?
As we saw Mercedes and McLaren didn’t just go all out for the qualy pace. And neither did RedBull and Ferrari go for the race pace. They finished exactly the opposite of what you predicted.
It’s just where every team is at the moment.
McLaren is best, unless they get their setup a bit wrong.
Mercedes are decent. About the same pace as Redbull which is very difficult to set up and get right. Both teams 2nd or 3rd fastest depending on if RedBull and Max can drag it ahead of Russell or not.
Ferrari have potential, but can’t seem to get the setup right. Seems very peaky. They were quickest but after a minor tweak fell back quite a bit.
Overall McLaren seem to be the best at the moment. the next 3 are close and swap around depending on who gets the setup best. Top 4 teams very close overall and things can change from track to track.
Seems to be a fun season ahead. Just stop hating and enjoy.