F1 Chinese GP live commentary and updates - sprint qualifying

Hello, good morning/evening and welcome to our live coverage of the first sprint qualifying of the 2025 F1 season.

China will be the first of six sprint weekends this year. “The venues chosen for Sprint events are all tracks with great overtaking potential, picked to try and ensure the Sprint is a flat-out, aggressive melee from start to finish” says F1's official website. Not sure this gels with the presence of Miami on the sprint schedule – a track which is notably slippery off the racing line, militating against overtaking. And as for Qatar...

This is a shorter and more frenetic session than a standard F1 qualifying. SQ1 will be 12 minutes, SQ2 10 minutes, and SQ3 8 minutes. Traffic will therefore likely be more of a factor.

In case you missed it, our recap of this weekend's sole free practice session is here. Spoilers: Lando Norris was fastest.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Key takeaways from FP1: despite being new and yet to 'rubber in', the new track surface is delivering more grip. Last year the circuit owners bizarrely decided to paint the track surface for cosmetic reasons and it resembled an ice rink. Max Verstappen's pole position time was 1m34.742s. In FP1 today Jack Doohan was slowest on 1m33.923s - and that was without running on the soft tyres because his car broke down.

Doohan’s car failure with 13 minutes remaining of practice not only robbed him of an opportunity to do a performance lap in that final segment, the red flag cost everyone else six minutes of track time. That might sound like not very much but it’s significant at that point in the session – it meant everybody on track at once trying more or less to do the same thing. Max Verstappen was one of several drivers not to set a representative time because he aborted his push lap; ditto Oscar Piastri, who overcooked it at the final corner. Meanwhile Doohan has another mountain to climb through no fault of his own this time.

Jack Doohan, Alpine

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Curious to see the two Mercedes circulating in close proximity. Suggests two prep laps - and indeed Antonelli's first sector time reflects that.

Verstappen is going for it. Purple in sector one, personal best in sector two, purple in sector three. Fastest of all 1m32.329s - on the medium tyre.

Both Ferraris and Antonelli now on push laps, none of them looking as fast as Verstappen so far - no, we stand corrected. Fast final sectors put Hamilton and Leclerc 1-2. Hamilton on 1m32.229s.

Lando Norris only P3 so far - he made a mess of the exit at the hairpin.

Norris now P4 as teammate Oscar Piastri goes top on 1m31.723. Then P5 as the evergreen Fernando Alonso goes second fastest!

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

At the moment Tsunoda, Sainz, Bearman, Bortoleto and Ocon are in the drop zone. Tsunoda feels he was baulked by Russell at the exit of the hairpin.

Russell and Antonelli now sixth and eighth fastest, and Russell has the dreaded "NOTED" message regarding potential impeding.

Since this track is likely to evolve quickly, nobody is leaving anything to chance in the final couple of minutes. Verstappen back out again. We're all still on mediums though.

With less than a minute to go it's PIA-ALO-HAM-LEC-NOR-VER-DOO-GAS-ANT in the top 10.

Norris goes top with his final lap, 1m31.396. Isack Hadjar posts a good time to enter the top 10, Stroll and Tsunoda also looking good. Lawson has had his fastest lap deleted for a track-limits violation.

And that's it for SQ1! Dramatic final laps indeed as Oliver Bearman pulls something out of the bag, but Lawson's laptime deletion proved costly - he's out.

Ditto Jack Doohan, who was in the top 10 just moments ago. Doohan, Gasly, Ocon, Hulkenberg and Lawson out.

Bearman's final flier put him 10th. That's good for his confidence after a wretched Australian GP. 

Lewis Hamilton's final lap put him atop the standings: 1m31.212s. That knocked Lando Norris into second. Charles Leclerc then split the McLarens in third place. Verstappen's last lap was good for fifth behind Piastri. Russell and Antonelli were P6 and P7 but Russell has an investigation pending. Fernando Alonso, Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman round out the top 10. Then Tsunoda, Stroll, Sainz, Albon and Bortoleto.

We're back out for SQ2! Antonelli leading the cars out on track again.

Only Antonelli, Hamilton, Norris, Leclerc, Piastri, Verstappen and Bortoleto out on track at the moment. Are the others waiting for a gap, or for the track to evolve? There isn't much time to post a lap in this session.

Russell and Tsunoda confirmed cleared of impeding during that session. Tsunoda was being looked at for potentially impeding Lance Stroll. That's a change - usually it's Lance Stroll impeding Lance Stroll.

Bortoleto's first push lap compromised by snap oversteer in the middle of Turn 1.

Antonelli goes top but Norris is purple in the first two sectors... and usurps him with a 1m31.174! This was arguably Max Verstappen's shortest tenure atop a timesheet as he'd also outpaced Antonelli.

Reminder: Michael Schumacher still holds the race lap record here, set in 2004: 1m32.238s.

Russell complaining of no grip at each end. Just three minutes to go and some drivers are starting to flap.

Still seven drivers yet to set a time: Sainz, Albon, Alonso, Hadjar, Bearman, Tsunoda and Stroll.

Hadjar just had a similar moment to Bortoleto's earlier whoopsie at Turn 1, and had to abort a flier. Getting squeaky for him now...

Norris, Piastri and Verstappen are the top three at the moment and have parked.

Tsunoda gets a tow from Hadjar along the back straight and goes P4. The question is can Hadjar set a meaningful time with the one shot now available to him?

No, Hadjar has pitted. That's him gone - P15 with no time. Tsunoda has been bunked down to seventh as the Ferraris get involved up front, and Stroll goes P6 behind NOR-PIA-HAM-VER-LEC. Alonso is P8, Bearman P9, Antonelli P10. That leaves Russell as the big fish in the drop zone...

Albon goes P5, bunking both Mercs out of the top 10 - but they're on fliers! Russell goes P2, Antonelli P5, so that pushes Alonso and Bearman out of the top 10.

OUT in SQ2: Alonso, Bearman, Sainz, Bortoleto and Hadjar.

IN: NOR, RUS, PIA, HAM, ANT, VER, ALB, LEC, STR, TSU.

From Alex Kalinauckas, trackside:  “Lawson out in SQ1 means his tough start to life at Red Bull continues. He’s had issues at Turn 3 all day - including a gravel trip in FP1. From my vantage point overlooking that spot again in sprint quali, both Red Bulls were very wide through each time, but Lawson had to stab the steering multiple times on exit, whereas Verstappen was smooth all the way around. That will have cost Lawson all the way onto the following straight.”

Alex has also been monitoring that vital between-session process, the sweeping of the gravel. A whistle signifies it's time to get off the track. Whistles! Like being at a 1990s rave.

Tick tock of the clock. SQ3 begins and drivers are out on the soft tyres.

Both McLarens flying. Piastri purple in sector two, Norris in sector one. Piastri does a 1m30.929s, Norris 1m31.393s. Provisional pole to Piastri! Then George Russell splits the McLarens. Antonelli won't - he's gone wandering from the racing line in that long first corner.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Hamilton's flyer begins. Teammate Leclerc is about 10s behind on track. It's neat! Lewis is purple in sector one, then sector two... but immediately usurped by the two McLarens...

1m30.849s for Lewis, that's provisionally P1. Leclerc is a couple of tenths down in P3. Piastri improves - but it's not enough! Still P2. Then Norris bails out to the pits. To make matters worse for Lando, Russell goes P4.