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Aston Martin: That was the limit today
P19 and P20 for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. With that, they could only beat the two Cadillac drivers – of whom Sergio Perez couldn’t even drive. Alonso explains that they have currently reached the “limit”.
“I think Williams is about three tenths ahead. In Australia it was eight tenths, I think. So yes, we have made some progress, but of course we are still far away,” said the Spaniard.
In fact, he was “only” 0,276 seconds behind Alexander Albon ahead of him today. Teammate Stroll was meanwhile 0,570 seconds slower than his teammate. “We are not here to fight for 19th place or something like that,” the Canadian emphasizes.
“So there is still a lot to do. But we expected that. We didn’t expect any miracles between Melbourne and China. It is what it is,” said Stroll.
Read more Praise from the competition: Audi drive is «very, very good!»
Ferrari: Closer in the sprint?
Lewis Hamilton was 0,641 seconds behind today, Charles Leclerc even a whopping 1,008. The Monegasque explained that he had a problem on the back straight that cost “half a second”.
Team principal Frederic Vasseur confirmed to Sky that there was a problem with the deployment. In addition, Leclerc himself emphasizes: “I think in the race we should be relatively a bit stronger than now in qualifying.”
“However, Mercedes still seems to be a step ahead.” In qualifying, Mercedes finds a bit more performance, but in the race Ferrari is closer, according to Leclerc.
Teammate Lewis Hamilton is “satisfied” with P4 and explains that they lose most of the time on the straights. “We really have to give everything in Maranello to improve our power,” said Hamilton.
“I think we can keep up with them in the corners,” he says about Mercedes. On the straights, however, that is currently not the case.
McLaren: At least beat Ferrari
“I’m happy with the result,” says Lando Norris after P3 and emphasizes: “P3 is the best we can achieve at the moment. I’m actually quite happy that we beat both Ferraris today.”
“Certainly things went better this weekend, simply because the track is much easier in this regard as far as the power unit is concerned,” he emphasizes and explains that they are in a “good position” for the sprint.
Teammate Oscar Piastri finished fifth and explains: “It was decent. […] But yes, of course the gap to Mercedes is quite impressive. So there are some things we need to work on.”
In the first sector, Piastri even set the fastest time, but in the end he was 0,704 seconds off the fastest time. For Norris, it was 0,621 seconds.
Wolff: We are not just ahead because of the engine
The Mercedes team principal meanwhile explains to Sky: “I’m really happy.” It is “a healthy gap to the others,” says Wolff, who explains: “Our big lead here is mainly in the corners.”
Meaning: The advantage does not come exclusively from the engine. This is also shown by the performance of the customer teams, Wolff emphasizes. For example, Pierre Gasly in the Alpine had “probably the strongest performance on the straights.”
Compared to the customers, they have no advantage here. There had been rumors in this regard recently.
Read more Why Ferrari’s biggest advantage is wavering, according to Charles Leclerc
Antonelli: Didn’t put the lap together
The Italian ended up almost three tenths behind his teammate. He explains: “The pace is very strong. In the end, I just didn’t put a lap together on the soft tires.”
But he emphasizes: “I feel good in the car. Of course, there are still some details we need to bring together. But tomorrow we will try to get a good start and then show a good qualifying.”
By the way, Antonelli is already out of the stewards’ office. Now let’s see when there will be a verdict.
Verstappen: A complete “disaster”
The Red Bull driver reports after P8: “The whole day was a disaster in terms of pace.” He had no grip and no balance and therefore lost “an enormous amount of time” in the corners.
“And then, of course, you trigger other small problems because of that. But the big problem for us is that the cornering behavior is completely off,” explains Verstappen.
They will now look at what they can still change for the rest of the weekend, but: “I don’t know what we can do at the moment,” he shrugs his shoulders.
Russell: Felt really fast
“The car felt great,” reports George Russell after his pole and explains: “We knew after Melbourne that we have a really good car, the engine is running very well, and today it was really fun to drive.”
“I’m curious to see how the lap times compare to last year, because it felt very fast, really cool and completely different from Melbourne,” said Russell.
We can help with that: Russell’s pole time today was 1:31.520. Last year, Lewis Hamilton took the sprint pole in China in a Ferrari with a 1:30.849.
So that’s less than a seven-tenth difference. That’s a significantly smaller gap than in Melbourne last week.
Read more Last-minute world tour: How Audi CEO Döllner experienced a historic debut
Sprint Qualifying Overview
Report
Result
Sprint Starting Grid
