After a poor weekend in Melbourne, fans didn’t have much expectations for Ferrari. However, Lewis Hamilton shocked not just us, but himself as well by taking the Sprint Pole on Friday.
In Australia, both the Ferraris only managed to qualify 7th and 8th for the race. But during the Spring Qualifying session in Shanghai, Hamilton completed an almost flawless lap while the McLarens struggled with grip. His teammate, Charles Leclerc also put in an impressive time that will see him starting 4th.
Lewis Hamilton did not expect to take Sprint pole position in Shanghai
During the first and only practice session of the weekend, Lando Norris was 4 tenths ahead of the entire field. This gave everyone the impression that the McLarens would dominate in Sprint qualifying and take pole. When Hamilton’s race engineer came on the radio to inform the 7-time Champion that he was on pole, Lewis was completely shocked. Here’s what he said after the race:
“I’m just a bit gobsmacked honestly, I’m a bit taken back by it, I didn’t know when we’d get to this position.”
“After last weekend it was a difficult start to the week, came here with aggression and wanted to go into the weekend and get the car into a great place.”
🇨🇳| Lewis Hamilton takes SPRINT POLE with Ferrari!#F1 #ChineseGP
[ 📸@F1] pic.twitter.com/nyMWQYeT3V
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) March 21, 2025
The last qualifying session for Ferrari did not go as well as expected. Even during the Australian Grand Prix, the team made a few strategic missteps that caused Hamilton and Leclerc to drop down the order to finish 8th and 10th.
But this weekend is a whole other story. But now, only one question remains. Can Ferrari hold the lead during the Sprint Race?
Ferrari race pace is still a question mark
Last weekend, we did not witness Ferrari’s true race pace as they had spent the entire race stuck behind other cars in wet weather conditions. The Chinese Grand Prix is being held in a completely different layout than the one at Melbourne and the weather conditions are bone dry. So there are still question marks as to how strong Hamilton and Leclerc will be during the race.
Given that this is a sprint weekend, the teams were not able to complete their race simulations to get an understanding of the race pace. They were hardly able to complete the qualifying simulations. But from what it seems, McLaren is still the fastest car when it comes to race pace. Ferrari seems to be second, but we can’t discount Max Verstappen.
Although Red Bull does not have the strongest car on the grid, Max Verstappen manages to drive around its problems and delivers an impressive result. We have witnessed this in several races in the past, including the Australian Grand Prix last weekend.
With Hamilton and Verstappen starting in the front row for the Sprint Race, things could get very exciting. You will not want to miss the Sprint race tomorrow. The Sprint race will start at 3:00 AM GMT / 11:00 PM ET.
