2025 Chinese Grand Prix – Qualifying F1 results (Shanghai)

Thomas Maher 22 Mar 2025 7:27 AM

The race start of the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix Sprint race.

Here are the complete results from the qualifying session at the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix.

Here are the complete F1 results from the qualifying session for the Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit.

The results of the qualifying session for the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix are in, and it’s McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who has finished on top to claim his first pole position in Formula 1 as teammate Lando Norris aborted his final flying lap.

Q3:

Q3 quickly became a McLaren battle for position on the front row, with Piastri seizing the initiative on the first runs by setting a 1:30.703 to go 0.090 clear of Norris.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the closest challenger after the first runs, a quarter of a second back, ahead of the trio of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes’ George Russell, and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli lost his first flying lap, due to exceeding track limits in the final sector – meaning the pressure was on the Italian for the final run.

Verstappen wasn’t able to improve on his final run, consigning him to fourth place, as Russell improved right at the chequered flag – improving by six-tenths of a second compared to Q2.

Norris aborted his final effort, diving into the pits at the end after some self-admitted small mistakes, to ease the pressure on Piastri.

But the Australian didn’t settle on his laurels and, instead, improved upon his time to finish 0.082 clear of Russell and over a tenth clear of Norris.

Piastri thus took his first Grand Prix pole position, saying that he’d “had a little scream into his helmet” over team radio as he accepted his engineer’s plaudits after the chequered flag.

Hamilton finished fifth ahead of Leclerc, the duo separated by just under a tenth, while Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar finished in seventh ahead of Antonelli, Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda, and Williams’ Alex Albon.

1. Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:30.641
2. George Russell Mercedes +0.082
3. Lando Norris McLaren +0.152
4. Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.176
5. Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.286
6. Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.380
7. Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.438
8. Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.462
9. Yuki Tsunoda Racing Bulls +0.997
10. Alex Albon Williams +1.065

FULL REPORT: Chinese GP: Piastri secures pole with lap record in qualifying, and a ‘little scream in my helmet’

Q2:

Norris set the fastest time of the weekend up to that point by setting a 1:30.787 towards the end of Q2, coming home over a third of a second clear of Verstappen.

Piastri was third, ahead of the duo of Hadjar and Tsunoda.

Knocked out were Haas’ Esteban Ocon, Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, the two Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, and Williams’ Carlos Sainz.

1. Lando Norris McLaren 1:30.787
2. Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.355
3. Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.413
4. Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.466
5. Yuki Tsunoda Racing Bulls +0.473
6. George Russell Mercedes +0.520
7. Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.663
8. Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.714
9. Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.803
10. Alex Albon Williams +0.808
11. Esteban Ocon Haas +0.838
12. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +0.845
13. Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.901
14. Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.986
15. Carlos Sainz Williams +1.053

Q1:

Hamilton picked up where he left off from the Sprint by going fastest of all early in Q1, but it wasn’t long before he was overcome by Piastri and, moments later, Verstappen – the Dutch driver putting in a purple final sector to snatch away top spot from the rest.

With many drivers choosing to take on fresh soft tyres for the final runs, there was a flurry of improvements as Norris recovered from a scruffy first run to go fastest with a 1:30.983, with Hadjar popping into second in his Racing Bull.

With Yuki Tsunoda third, it was Russell fourth, while Verstappen stayed in fifth after opting against coming back out – meaning he held onto an extra set of soft tyres for the remainder of qualifying.

At the back, both Alpine drivers were knocked out with Pierre Gasly in 16th and Jack Doohan in 18th, split by Haas’ Oliver Bearman.

19th was Sauber’s Gabriel Bartoleto, with Red Bull’s Liam Lawson enduring another horrible qualifying session to finish slowest of all – the Kiwi is yet to make it out of the first part of qualifying in any of the sessions he’s taken part in so far this season.