Antonelli youngest polesitter after Russell issues in China

· BBC Sport
Antonelli becomes the youngest polesitter for a full grand prix in historyGetty Images

By
Andrew Benson
F1 Correspondent
Published

Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli became the youngest driver to set pole position in Formula 1 history by leading team-mate George Russell at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Russell ended up 0.222 seconds adrift of the Italian after a race against time to solve a gearbox problem with his car that threatened to leave him 10th on the grid.

Mercedes managed to repair Russell's car just in time to get him out for a final lap and he managed to sneak ahead of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

McLaren locked out the third row on a two-by-two grid with Oscar Piastri ahead of world champion Lando Norris.

Alpine's Pierre Gasly took seventh ahead of the troubled Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.

Briton Oliver Bearman secured the final spot in the top 10 for Haas.

Image gallerySkip image gallery

  1. Russell suffered several car problems just at the wrong momentGetty Images
  2. But perhaps not as many as Gabriel Bortoleto, who threw his Audi into the gravel trapGetty Images
  3. It was a miserable qualifying for the uncompetitive Williams (Carlos Sainz, above) and Aston Martin teamsGetty Images
  4. But fans in the big stands of the Shanghai International Circuit seemed to enjoy it allGetty Images
  5. Antonelli's record eclipses Sebastian Vettel's youngest ever polesitter record from the 2008 Italian Grand PrixGetty Images
  6. The German four-time champion set his lap in torrential rain at MonzaGetty Images

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Slide 1 of 6, George Russell, Russell suffered several car problems just at the wrong moment
End of image gallery

What happened to Russell?

Antonelli's new record - he is 18 years and 212 days old - beat the previous held by Sebastian Vettel, who was 21 years and 72 days old when he took pole at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.

Antonelli said he was "very happy" but accepted that he might well not have taken pole had Russell had a problem-free qualifying.

He said: "George had an issue, so probably could have been a different story but happy to be on pole for the first time."

Russell described his second place as "damage limitation" after a litany of problems through qualifying.

The championship leader said: "It was a crazy session. Front wing broke at the end of Q2. The team weren't sure it had broken but I was sure it had. Then got stranded on track and just made it back out in time. It was more a case of just getting a lap done.

"P2 is better than I was expecting when I started the lap with no battery and tyre temperature. Really happy to be here because I could have been down in 10th."

In the first session, Leclerc became the first driver to beat Russell in a competitive session this year with a time just under 0.1secs quicker than the Briton.

Then in the second session, Russell ended up third fastest behind Antonelli and Leclerc after he suffered a broken front wing, for reasons as yet unclear.

Heading out for the final session, Russell's car stopped on track on his out lap as the gearbox refused to change gear.

Antonelli drove past his team-mate as he set the fastest time on his first flying lap, 0.3secs quicker than Leclerc.

After frantic work in the garage, Mercedes managed to fix Russell's car and he just got out in time to set a lap but his rushed preparation meant the car was not in its optimum condition as he went for a time.

Hamilton, who tussled with Russell for the lead in the opening laps of the sprint race earlier on Saturday, was 0.351secs off pole and said he had hopes of challenging the Mercedes again in the grand prix.

"It was a really tough qualifying," Hamilton said. "A bit harder with the wind. It is so gusty today. So challenging.

"Really happy and grateful to be up here with these guys. Engineers did some great work over the break and managed to get a little closer to these guys.

"It's still going to be a challenge but I am sure we're going to have some fun. Learned a lot in the sprint race and our goal is to break the gap to these guys somehow."

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Top 10

1. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) - 1:32.064

2. George Russell (Mercedes) +0.222

3. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.351

4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.364

5. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.486

6. Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.544

7. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +0.809

8. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.938

9. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +1.057

10. Oliver Bearman (Haas) +1.228

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