Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli became the youngest polesitter in Formula 1 history at the Chinese Grand Prix, beating Mercedes teammate George Russel. Russell secured second place on the grid with a late flying lap, after an earlier car problem hampered him in Q3.
The 19-year-old qualified 0.222 seconds faster than championship-leading teammate George Russel, who secured a front-row exclusion at Mercedes despite previous car trouble. While Antonelli was already the youngest polesitter in any format after leading qualifying for the sprint in Miami last year, he broke Sebastian Vettel’s Grand Prix record as a 21-year-old in 2008 in Shanghai on Saturday.
In this regard, Russell said: “In Q2 the front wing broke, we had our heads wrapped around that. Then obviously we went out in Q3, the car stopped on the track, the car wouldn’t restart and couldn’t shift gears.”
“At the start of the last lap I had no battery, no tire temperature, nothing. But the team did a great job to get us in this position, it could have been a lot worse.” he added.
Russell, who won Saturday’s sprint in remarkable fashion, could only manage one flying lap in the final part of qualifying after a car problem briefly halted him on track.
The Brit returned to the pits stuck in first gear, and the problem was resolved. Nevertheless, Ferrari closed out the second row, Lewis Hamilton finishing fractionally ahead of Charles Leclerc, while Oscar Piastri edged out his McLaren teammate and reigning world champion, Lando Norris.
