F1 Chinese GP live commentary and updates - sprint qualifying

The extraordinary scenes continue as Max Verstappen goes P2, just 0.018s off Hamilton's lap.

So that's pole position in the sprint for Lewis Hamilton with a 1m30.849s lap on the softs. He has a chuckle with race engineer Riccardo Adami on his slow-down lap. Leave them to it!

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Behind Hamilton it's Verstappen, Piastri, Leclerc, Russell, Norris, Antonelli, Tsunoda, Albon and Stroll. We're yet to see what prompted Norris to abort his last push lap; on his first he had some snap oversteer while hustling through the last corner before the back straight.

Now we get it: Norris locked up his front axle into the final hairpin.

The leading trio report to the scales to be weighed. It's now 30 years since driver weight was factored into overall car weight, and Michael Schumacher courted controversy by arriving at the pre-season weigh-in 8kg heavier than he'd been at the end of the previous season. FIA president Max Mosley was unimpressed, so the loophole was immediately closed and drivers were weighed post-session...

"Firstly I'd like to say thank you to this amazing crowd we have today," says Lewis. "I didn't expect that result, but so happy and so proud. Obviously the last race was a disaster for us - we knew there was more performance in the car, we didn't know how to extract it."

Another missive - a picture postcard from Alex Kalinauckas: 

“Bortoleto did very well to progress to SQ2 - take that, Helmut Marko (again)! - but he came acropper early in his final lap catching a big snap exiting Turn 3. Had to step fully off the gas and several tenths went begging”

Lewis signs off by thanking the crowd in Chinese - who knew he was such a cunning linguist?

A fascinating sprint race in prospect, then, tomorrow. Will we see one of F1's longest-standing race lap records fall? And if so, will the statistically anomalous nature of the sprint events cause a kerfuffle among the commentariat? We'll find out - better bring a helmet...