Oscar Piastri snares first Formula 1 pole position for Chinese Grand Prix and Lewis Hamilton wins sprint race
By Michael Doyle
Topic:Formula 1
4h ago4 hours agoSat 22 Mar 2025 at 3:57am
Oscar Piastri climbs into his McLaren F1 car.
Oscar Piastri was more than one-tenth of a second ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris. (Getty Images: Steven Tee/LAT Images)
In short:
Australian McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has secured his first pole position in Formula 1, qualifying fastest for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Earlier, Lewis Hamilton won as a Ferrari driver for the first time, taking out the sprint race in Shanghai.
What's next?
The Chinese Grand Prix will start at 6pm on Sunday AEDT.
Australian Oscar Piastri has secured his first Formula 1 pole position with a searing lap in China.
Piastri qualified fastest for Sunday's race with a time of 1:30.641, with George Russell's Mercedes (+0.082) second and teammate Lando Norris 0.152 seconds back in third.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top five in Shanghai.
It came hours after Hamilton achieved his first win as a Ferrari driver, claiming the sprint race on Saturday afternoon.
The seven-time world champion had a lacklustre debut weekend for the Scuderia in Melbourne, but converted Friday's sprint pole into a terrific win.
Lewis Hamilton leading Max Verstappen through a corner
Lewis Hamilton wins the Formula 1 sprint race in Shanghai, his first victory for Ferrari. (Getty Images: Clive Rose)
Piastri made a late overtake on Red Bull's Max Verstappen to round out the podium.
Championship leader Norris, who won the season-opening grand prix, finished eighth and claimed the final championship point.
"It is great to come here and feel more comfortable in the car as in Melbourne. I really didn't feel comfortable in the car," Hamilton said.
"I know the team wants to win and it means everything to them. Rome wasn't built in a day, so one day at a time."
The second-place finish was a nice bounce back for Piastri, who spun out of winning contention last Sunday at the Australian Grand Prix.
"Second is a good result and we learned a lot," the Australian said.
"The way I got the result is an encouraging thing. We didn't quite have enough pace for Lewis out front, but we have some good ideas for later and tomorrow."
The ABC of SPORT
Sports content to make you think... or allow you not to. A newsletter delivered each Saturday.
Your information is being handled in accordance with the ABC Privacy Collection Statement.
Posted4h ago4 hours agoSat 22 Mar 2025 at 3:57am, updated12m ago12 minutes agoSat 22 Mar 2025 at 8:28am
Copy link
X (formerly Twitter)