Russell takes Sprint pole in China ahead of Antonelli and Norris.
Russell’s first Q3 run earned him top spot on 1:31.520. That put him clear of Antonelli, Hamilton, Leclerc and Verstappen. The other five cars, including the McLarens and Hadjar, remained in the garage, targeting a single run with the track at its best.
13 MARCH 2026
Racecars

Mercedes’ George Russell will start the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix from the front of the grid after beating team-mate Kimi Antonelli by just under three tenths of a second. Lando Norris took third in Sprint Qualifying more than six tenths behind the lead Mercedes. There was a faller before the session had even got underway, with Cadillac’s Sergio Pérez ruled out due to a technical problem on his car.

When the track went green for the start of SQ1 it was Russell who led the way, with the Mercedes driver going quickest on 1:33.030. That put him a tenth clear of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton with the seven-time champion’s team-mate Charles Leclerc in P3 ahead of Antonelli, Norris and the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Further back, Red Bull Racing were struggling. Max Verstappen was complaining of “horrendous driveability” on his RB22, and the four-time champion progressed in a relatively lowly 11th place, some 1.8s off Russel’s P1 time. It was a similar story for Verstappen’s new team-mate Isack Hadjar woe went through in P14.

‘Russell’s first Q3 run earned him top spot on 1:31.520’;

https://www.racecar.com/news/103311/...lli-and-norris


Full starting grid for 2026 F1 Chinese Grand Prix Sprint
Check out the full starting grid for the first Sprint race of 2026, at the Chinese Grand Prix!
13 Mar 2026
RacingNews365 Staff
RacingNews365

Full starting grid for 2026 F1 Chinese Grand Prix Sprint
Position Driver Team
1st George Russell Mercedes
2nd Kimi Antonelli Mercedes
3rd Lando Norris McLaren
4th Lewis Hamilton Ferrari
5th Oscar Piastri McLaren
6th Charles Leclerc Ferrari
7th Pierre Gasly Alpine
8th Max Verstappen Red Bull
9th Oliver Bearman Haas
10th Isack Hadjar Red Bull

‘Chinese Grand Prix Sprint’;

https://racingnews365.com/full-start...nd-prix-sprint


'It's an opportunity' – Norris targets China Sprint start to beat Russell and Mercedes
Having qualified third for the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix, reigning F1 World Champion Lando Norris is targeting a way of beating the Mercedes duo.
13 Mar 2026
Formula One - Official Site

Lando Norris believes the start of Saturday's Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix is 'an opportunity for sure' to try and beat the Mercedes of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

"I'm just happy with the result, I've not seen what I lost and gained or whatever," he said. "P3 is as good as we can do for the time being. Actually pretty happy to beat both the Ferraris today because they seemed pretty good the whole day. Satisfied, good position for tomorrow.

"Certainly things have been better this weekend, just because the track is a lot more simple from a power unit side of things, so everyone kind of falls in line a bit more. We certainly seemed to get a good amount of it at the end and it was close. A good lap put me in a good position."

'It's an opportunity';

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...H6MezXPbj84lXu


George Russell accuses Ferrari of creating ‘unnecessary complications’ ahead of 2026 Chinese GP
George Russell accuses Ferrari of blocking changes to Formula 1 start rules as teams struggle with the new 2026 power unit launches
13 Mar 2026
Brandon Sutton
Total Motorsport

George Russell accuses Ferrari of creating “unnecessary complications” ahead of 2026 Chinese GP, by resisting any changes to Formula 1 start procedure as teams struggle to get off the line whilst the FIA chases solutions. “The FIA was looking to potentially adjust that (the start procedure),” Russell told media, including Total-Motorsport.com.

“But as you can imagine some teams who were making good starts didn’t want it, which I think is just a little bit silly. I’m not overly concerned, but it’s definitely a challenge. They [FIA] could do [change the rules]. I think they want to, but they need a super majority from the teams, which they don’t have. So, you can probably guess which team is against that. I don’t think their gain is coming from this issue. Now all the teams know the problem, we’ll just drive around it.”

“But it’s just creating a bit of unnecessary complications to something that doesn’t really need to be there. Half the grid messed up in Melbourne. We’ll adjust. We know what we need to be wary of now. The FIA did just want to make our life easier and just remove this harvest limit, but, as often [happens], people have selfish views and they want to do what’s best for themselves. And that’s part of Formula 1 and part of the challenge of Formula 1. We’ll deal with it and I think the starts here will be much better.”

‘Unnecessary complications’;

https://www.total-motorsport.com/geo...sy-chinese-gp/


Anthony Davidson concerned by what he heard in Max Verstappen’s Chinese Grand Prix onboard
13 Mar 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Sky Sports pundit Davidson heard the evidence during a replay of an oversteer moment for Verstappen in SQ1. Oscar Piastri experienced a similarly violent ‘torque spike’ before crashing on the warm-up lap in Melbourne. Davidson says that Verstappen is having to drive ‘on the defensive’ because he hasn’t established trust in this year’s car. “Let’s have a listen to this,” he said. “Oh yeah, you could really hear it, couldn’t you, as he picked up the throttle. That’s the drivability he’s talking about. That’s the exit. That is a lot of power and deployment that he wasn’t expecting. We would refer to that usually as a torque spike.”

Last weekend, Davidson said Verstappen was trying to drive like the ‘good old days’. There were times in practice where he was seemingly caught out by the reduced downforce. Verstappen has made it abundantly clear that he isn’t enjoying the driving experience this year. While he says this isn’t linked to results, Red Bull’s lack of pace will only sour his mood further

Helmut Marko says Verstappen won’t win the title in 2026, and while this is only round two out of 24, it’s hard to disagree in light of the enormous gap to Mercedes. Red Bull’s rate of development should theoretically be higher than their rivals, though, because they are racing with their own power unit for the first time.

‘Trying to drive like the good old days’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/ant...-prix-onboard/


‘I don’t know what we can do’ – Verstappen rues ‘disaster’ Friday in China after P8 in Sprint Qualifying
It was a tough start to the Chinese Grand Prix weekend for Red Bull, with Max Verstappen explaining the issues he experienced after ending Sprint Qualifying in P8.
13 Mar 2026
Formula One - Official Site

Max Verstappen labelled Friday at the Chinese Grand Prix as a “disaster pace-wise”, with the Red Bull driver suggesting that he does not yet know what the team will do to address the issues for the rest of the weekend after ending Sprint Qualifying in P8.

“The whole day has been a disaster pace-wise,” said Verstappen. “[I had] no grip – honestly I think that’s the biggest problem – no balance, just losing massive amounts of time in the corners, to be honest. And then of course because of that, you start to trigger other little problems. The big problem for us is just the cornering – it’s completely out.”

‘I don’t know what we can do’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...FvXYzFMS0seJns


Charles Leclerc agrees with Lewis Hamilton about Ferrari’s gap to Mercedes at the Chinese Grand Prix
13 Mar 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have agreed that Ferrari urgently need to improve their power unit after Mercedes maintained their significant advantage in Sprint qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc says Ferrari can’t live with Mercedes in qualifying.

Speaking in the media pen after Sprint qualifying, Leclerc said that Mercedes are making a leap in qualifying trim that Ferrari simply can’t live with. Leclerc was eight-tenths off Russell’s benchmark in Melbourne qualifying before challenging the Briton for the win after a rapid start to the race.

Ferrari were seen as the closest challengers to Mercedes when they arrived in Shanghai, but Lando Norris was ‘best of the rest’ in third, and Oscar Piastri managed to split the two scarlet red cars. That suggests reigning champions McLaren have also made a step in the last week. Mercedes boast a 0.621s lead over McLaren atop the SQ3 timesheets after Sprint Qualifying in China.

‘Ferrari urgently need to improve their power unit’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/cha...se-grand-prix/