F1 Sprint Qualifying Results: Hamilton STUNS doubters with pole at Chinese Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton stunned the doubters at the Chinese Grand Prix on Friday, taking a stunning pole position for Saturday's sprint race.

Max Verstappen was beaten into second place by just 0.018 of a second, with Oscar Piastri less than a tenth of a second off Hamilton's all-time lap record at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Liam Lawson was eliminated from the first part of the session - and worse, the New Zealander, in his first full season in the sport, will start dead last on Saturday morning after a disastrous start to his weekend.

George Russell looked as though could be in a spot of bother after being noted by the stewards for potentially impeding Yuki Tsunoda coming out of the penultimate corner, but stewards decided they would take no further action.

The Williams of Carlos Sainz dropped out in SQ2, a blow for the British team after showing good pace in Bahrain and Australia.

F1 Sprint Qualifying Results: Chinese Grand Prix 2025

ELIMINATED IN SQ2

ELIMINATED IN SQ1

How does F1 Sprint Qualifying work?

The sprint qualifying session is split into three finite windows, which provide a dramatic prelude to Saturday's short race.

The bottom five drivers are eliminated at the end of SQ1, with a further five eliminated after SQ2.

Then, SQ3 gives us a shootout between the remaining 10 drivers in the battle for positions at the front of the grid.

READ MORE: F1 Sprint Race Today: Chinese Grand Prix 2025 start times, schedule and how to watch live on TV

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