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George Russell laid down a further marker as the man to beat in the new Formula One season with a dominant run in qualifying to claim pole for the sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix. He sealed another front row lockout alongside Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli with Russell finishing more than half a second clear of their nearest rival.
The first sprint weekend under the new regulations is a journey into the unknown for teams and drivers and they had only the single hour of practice to understand how best to optimise their cars for energy deployment before qualifying.
Russell and Antonelli duly set the pace in Q3, with the British driver on top by three-10ths, followed by the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc but the Briton was six-10ths off Russell and Leclerc a full second back.
