Kimi Antonelli made history on Saturday after taking pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix, becoming the youngest driver ever to achieve the feat in Formula One. The 19-year-old Mercedes driver clocked a stunning lap of 1 minute 32.064 seconds during qualifying in Shanghai. With this result, Antonelli broke the long-standing record held by Sebastian Vettel, who was 21 years old when he took pole position for the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. Antonelli’s performance also helped the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team secure a front-line lockout, as championship leader George Russell qualified second, just 0.222 seconds behind his team-mate. Russell’s result came despite a setback during the final qualifying session when his car got stuck in gear in the opening outlap of Q3, forcing him to return to the pits briefly. Once the problem was fixed, he only had time for one flying lap and could not improve enough to challenge Antonelli’s benchmark.
Behind the Mercedes pair, the Scuderia Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc finished third and fourth respectively, making up the second row for Sunday’s race. The third row will feature two drivers from the McLaren Formula 1 team, with Oscar Piastre fifth and reigning world champion Lando Norris sixth. Further down the order, Pierre Gasly finished seventh for the Alpine F1 Team. Max Verstappen endured a difficult session and finished only eighth for Red Bull Racing, continuing a challenging weekend for the team. The final two spots in the top ten went to Isaac Hajar in ninth and Oliver Biermann in tenth for the Haas F1 Team. Earlier in the day, Russell won the sprint race after an early battle with Hamilton. The victory helped extend his lead over team-mates Antonelli and Leclerc to 11 points in the drivers’ championship, with Hamilton four points behind. Sunday’s race will run over 56 laps at the Shanghai International Circuit, with Mercedes on the front row and Ferrari and McLaren at the back for an exciting contest.
