21/03/2025
NEWS STORY
Ahead of today's Shootout the air temperature is 25 degrees while the track temperature is 39 degrees. It remains bright and sunny.
Norris was quickest earlier, almost half a second quicker than second fastest Leclerc, Piastri and Hamilton. Verstappen aborted his only run on the softs.
In fact there was precious little soft running after Doohan stopped on track with a hydraulics issue that necessitated the red flag.
There were a few off and spins with drivers particularly struggling with their front-lefts, while the resurfaced track has seen an increase in pace with several drivers already lapping quicker than last year's pole time.
The lights go green and Antonelli leads the way, followed by Russell, Bortoleto, Tsunoda and Verstappen.
His earlier issue seemingly solved, Doohan heads out.
Antonelli posts a 50.638 but Bortoleto responds with a 33.693 and Verstappen a 32.329.
Hadjar goes second, ahead of Gasly, Doohan, Tsunoda and Bearman, as the Mercedes pair appear to be doing two warm-up laps.
Antonelli runs wide, but goes fourth (32.663) as Hamilton and Leclerc go first and second.
Piastri goes top, 0.506 up on Hamilton, while Norris can only manage fourth.
A 32.11 sees Alonso go second, as Hulkenberg goes eighth.
Russell can only manage sixth and his teammate eighth, both over 0.5s off the pace.
As Verstappen slips to seventh, Lawson goes tenth.
Stroll and Bearman have been noted for an incident as others are already having times deleted for exceeding track limits.
Tsunoda, Sainz, Bearman, Bortoleto and Ocon comprise the drop zone as Russell has been noted for impeding Tsunoda.
Norris goes quickest in S1 as Doohan goes eighth overall.
Albon goes eighth and Norris quickest (31.396) and Antonelli third.
Sainz goes tenth but is demoted by Stroll and Tsunoda.
Bortoleto improves to 14th while Lawson fails to make the cut.
Leclerc goes second as Bearman goes ninth.
Hamilton goes top with a 31.212, as Russell goes sixth.
Hulkenberg fails to make the cut.
"I'm really sorry, but I could not get the tyres down," explains Lawson.
Hamilton is quickest, ahead of Norris, Leclerc, Piastri, Verstappen, Russell, Antonelli, Alonso, Hadjar and Bearman.
We lose Doohan, Gasly, Ocon, Hulkenberg and Lawson.
Antonelli is first out for SQ2, followed by Russell, Bortoleto and Verstappen, as was pretty much the opening order in SQ1.
Seemingly Alpine feels that both of its drivers were blocked on their final fast laps.
Antonelli posts a 48.244, seemingly once again going for two warm-ups.
Verstappen crosses the line at 31.521 while Norris responds with a 31.174. Hamilton goes third.
Russell goes fourth, ahead of Leclerc, Piastri and Bortoleto.
A 32.099 from Antonelli and Russell a 32.131.
Piastri goes second, stopping the clock at 31.362.
"Tyres aren't working, guy," says Russell, "both axles no grip."
Sainz goes eighth while Albon appears to abort his lap.
Tsunoda goes fourth, courtesy of a tow from his teammate, with a 31.794, as Hamilton subsequently leapfrogs him.
Hamilton goes third, Leclerc fifth and Alonso eighth.
Bearman goes ninth, which is bad news for Russell.
A 31.539 sees Albon go fifth, dropping Antonelli into the drop zone.
Antonelli goes fourth, while his teammate crosses the line at 31.346 to go second.
Quickest is Norris, ahead of Russell, Piastri, Hamilton, Antonelli, Verstappen, Albon, Leclerc, Stroll and Tsunoda.
We lose Alonso, Bearman, Sainz, Bortoleto and Hadjar.
Sainz is unhappy with the wind, his problems compounded by a loose seat.
Check out our Friday gallery from Shanghai here.
Piastri is first out for SQ3, followed by Norris, Antonelli and Russell.
Piastri crosses the line at 30.929, while his teammate can only manage a 31.393.
Indeed, Russell splits the McLarens with a 31.169. Antonelli goes fourth with a 31.738, 0.809s off the pace.
While those four can do a second lap, the remaining six are clearly going for one hot lap.
Last to emerge is Tsunoda.
Norris looks set to improve.
Hamilton crosses the line at 30.849 to go top, while Leclerc goes third and Norris aborts despite a strong opening sector, the Briton having made a mistake and run wide in S3.
Stroll goes seventh, as attention turns to Verstappen.
Verstappen goes second while Albon goes eighth only to be demoted by Tsunoda.
"Where are we asks?" Hamilton. When told he has pole, he replies: "Really?" and giggles.
"I didn't expect that result," laughs the seven-time world champion, "but so happy and proud. The last race was a disaster for us, there was more performance in the car but we couldn't extract it.
""The team did a fantastic job to get the car ready," he continues, "I'm in shock, I can't believe we have a pole for the Sprint. My first sector was really strong, but there's still time to find for sure.
"It's amazing to see the 'No. 1' as you stop, and the red car... it's incredible. I didn't get to do a race run in Bahrain, and last weekend was in the wet so tomorrow will be my first race run in the dry."
"It's better than last week, but we still have a lot of work to do," adds Fred Vasseur.
Alongside Hamilton on the front row will be his former nemesis Verstappen, ahead of Piastri, Leclerc, Russell, Norris, Antonelli, Tsunoda, Albon and Stroll.
Alonso will start eleventh, ahead of Bearman, Sainz, Bortoleto, Hadjar, Doohan, Gasly, Ocon, Hulkenberg and Lawson.
Check out our Friday gallery from Shanghai here.