Courtesy: Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time F1 champion, was left surprised at the pace of Ferrari’s SF-25 car after taking the pole position for the sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit. The 40-year-old spoke about being a “bit gobsmacked” after getting up at the front, out qualifying his teammate Charles Leclerc along with Max Verstappen of Red Bull and Oscar Piastri of McLaren.
Notably, Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in sprint race qualifying with 1:30.649 minutes, ahead of Max Verstappen by 0.018 seconds, who will be alongside him at the front row of the grid, while Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc were a further 0.070 and 0.208 seconds behind him respectively. Following a tough main race in Australia, which saw him finish in 10th place after qualifying in eighth place, the Briton was happy about the progress made by Ferrari within a few days.
I can't believe we are at the front. I am just a bit gobsmacked: Lewis Hamilton
While speaking about his sprint race pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was quoted as saying, as per BBC Sport, “I'm a bit taken aback by it. I didn't know when we would get to this position and, after last weekend, it was a difficult start to the week. I came here with aggression and wanting to go into the weekend and get the car into a great place. I started out straight away with a better feeling in the car and I can't believe we are at the front. I am just a bit gobsmacked.”
In a day’s time, Lewis Hamilton will have the chance to collect a few valuable points from the front row of the grid in the sprint race before focusing his attention on qualifying for the main race later in the afternoon. He remarked, “Even though it's not the main pole it gives me real inspiration to go into tomorrow and try to find more performance and see if we can compete again. There's definitely a little more performance to find, for sure.”
Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc wasn’t happy with his performance, but at the same time, he complimented his Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton for faster pace. “I struggled on my side of the garage. From the beginning I felt I was a step back from Lewis and he was just faster.Struggled a lot in Turns One, Two and Three, which is the same as last year more or less. Apart from that, everything was quite tight. It's a shame we start P4 but Lewis is on pole and hopefully we can have a strong race,” he stated.
