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Max Lines Up Fourth After Tight Shanghai QualifyingMax secures a solid P4 in a fiercely close Shanghai qualifying, while Lawson faces a fight from the back after a tough session.

MaxVerstappenwilllineuponrowtwoofthegrid,alongsideLandoNorrisafterthedefendingchampiontookfourthplaceinatightChineseGrandPrixqualifyingsessioninwhichthetopfourwerecoverbyjustunder1800thsofasecond.OscarPiastritookpolepositionalongsideGeorgeRussellonthefrontrow.Max’ssolidstartingpositioncameinthewakeofagoodSprintrace,inwhichthechampionfinishedthird.

There was disappointment from Liam Lawson, however. The Kiwi struggled to find a comfort zone with his RB21, and he is set to start the race in Shanghai from last place on the grid. The result was a tough one for the New Zealander, especially in light of a solid Sprint outing that saw him work his through the pack from 19th to 14th with some aggressive overtakes

MaxgivesushisthoughtsonQualifyingatShanghai

Sprint

Battling heavy tyre degradation, Max took a solid third place in the Sprint after starting from the front row. The Dutchman held his P2 spot at the start and once DRS had been activated began to put pressure on the race leader, Lewis Hamilton.

The Briton was able to keep Max behind, however, and after 10 laps in the turbulent air behind the Ferrari, Max’s front tyres began to suffer. And after slipping back, Oscar overtook under DRS at the end of lap 15. With a healthy gap back to fourth-placed George, Max dialled it down and brought his RB21 home in a comfortable third to take six valuable points.

At the other end of the order, Liam’s Sprint was all about moving forward. Starting from 19th after a difficult Sprint qualifying, the Kiwi was quickly on the move. He made contact with Jack Doohan but, although the incident was investigated, Liam kept the place and eventually managed to claw his way through to 14th at the chequered flag

Liam clawing back places© Getty Images

Q1

Oscar set the pace in the opening runs of Q1, with the McLaren driver stopping the clock at 1:31.591, a tenth ahead of Sprint winner Lewis and almost half a second ahead of third-placed George.

Max was one of the last out of the pit lane, however, and a first flyer featuring a purple final sector vaulted him past Oscar with a time of 1:31.424. Meanwhile, Liam’s opener of 1:32.49 left him 15th and a second down on Max. And as better laps came in the Kiwi slipped back to 19th.

Confident in his opening time, Max opted to save a set of tyres and stayed in the garage for the final runs on a track that was rapidly ramping up. The improvement was demonstrated first by VCARB’s Yuki Tsunoda who jumped ahead of Max with a lap of 1:31.238. The Japanese driver’s new teammate, Isack Hadjar, then found another handful of hundredths to briefly take P1 before McLaren’s Lando jumped to the top of the order with a lap of 1:30.983.

Unfortunately, there was no place in Q2 for Liam. The New Zealander improved on his opener, but only marginally, and at the end of another tough session he qualified in P20.

Also ruled out at the end of Q1 were Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in P16, followed by Haas’ Oliver Bearman, the second Alpine of Jack Doohan and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto.

A Tough Session For Liam© Getty Images

Q2

Lando retained his grip on P1 in the opening runs of Q2. The Briton posted a time of 1:30.787 to sit four tenths clear of teammate Piastri, with Max in third place with a lap of 1:31.234. George slotted into fourth with Tsunoda again looking pacey in fifth place.

After Max’s single Q1 effort, this time it was Lando’s turn to sit out the final runs, while Oscar went out on a used set of soft-compound Pirelli tyres. That left the door open for Max but while the champion managed to edge past Oscar his final time of 1:31.142 left him 0.355s off Lando.

The VCARBs continued their strong session, with Isack taking a late fourth place thanks to a lap time of 1:31.253, just five hundredths of a second off Oscar, while Yuki backed up his teammate with fifth place, four hundredths ahead of George.

Eliminated at the end of Q2 were Haas’ Esteban Ocon in P11, Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll and in 15th place Williams’ Carlos Sainz.

Q3

Respect between two greats© Getty Images

Max was the first of the pole contenders across the line at the start of Q3 and the Dutchman dipped below 1m31s for the first time in the session, by 0.075s. It was good, but not quite good enough to hold off the McLarens, and Oscar took provisional pole 0.222s ahead of the champion, with Lando nine-hundredths of a second behind his teammate.

And the Australian was one of the few to improve in the final runs, finding another six hundredths to claim his first Grand Prix pole position. Lando backed out of his final flyer and that allowed George to claim a front-row berth with a time of 1:30.723. Max, meanwhile, couldn’t find any gains on his final flyer and he had to settle for fourth place, just behind Lando.

Lewis secured fifth ahead of team-mate Charles and Isack claimed seventh place. Andrea Kimi Antonelli qualified eighth place for Mercedes ahead of Yuki and Alex Albon took tenth place for Williams.