New Delhi, April 29, 2024: Triple world champion Max Verstappen followed up his commanding Saturday sprint win by taking Red Bull’s landmark 100th Formula One pole with a dominant show in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.
The pole was the Dutch driver’s fifth in five races this season and sixth in a row including last year’s Abu Dhabi finale.
Mexican team mate Sergio Perez qualified second fastest in a front row lockout for Red Bull, 15 years after the team took their first win at the Shanghai International Circuit with Sebastian Vettel.
Verstappen, who earlier won the season’s first sprint race by 13 seconds, is the first driver since Mika Hakkinen in 1999 to start a season with five successive poles.
“I think after the sprint race it gave us a few more ideas for the car and I think the car worked even better in qualifying now…The car was really nice to drive,” said the 26-year-old.
“That final lap felt pretty decent and (I’m) also very happy to drive here in the dry. The conditions were pretty good so it was a lot of fun.”
Verstappen’s pole time of one minute 33.660 seconds was 0.322 quicker than Perez’s best.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and McLaren’s Lando Norris shared the second row but Mercedes seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, second in the sprint, went out in the first phase and will start 18th.
Norris had been on pole for the earlier sprint but went wide at the start and ended up only sixth. Sunday’s race gives him another chance for solid points.
Australian team mate Oscar Piastri will line up fifth on the grid with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz sixth and seventh.
Sainz brought out the red flags 6.44 seconds from the end of the second phase of qualifying when he went onto the gravel, spun and crashed at the final turn according to the reports published in rediff.com.
The Spaniard managed to keep the engine running and returned to the pits, where Ferrari were able to change the tyres and front wing and send him back out to set the third fastest lap and qualify for the top 10 shootout.
Hamilton’s team mate George Russell qualified eighth with Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg ninth and Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas completing the top 10.
Sunday’s race will be the first in China since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
