Max Verstappen achieves pole position for the F1 Chinese GP; Checo Pérez will start second

Perfect day for the Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull): the leader of the championship Formula 1 achieved on Saturday the 'pole position' of the Chinese Grand Prixhours after winning the first sprint race of the season. The Mexican Sergio 'Checo' Pérez will come second and the Spanish Fernando Alonsothird.

For the fifth time this season in as many times Great prizes, The Dutchman will start Sunday's race from the first place on the grid.

The 'pole' on Saturday has a special flavor, as it is the 100th for the Austrian team Red Bull, on the same circuit in which the German Sebastian Vettel he achieved the first for the team in 2009.

“This is an incredible achievement for the entire team (…) it's fantastic,” reacted the Dutch triple world champion, well positioned to seek his fourth GP victory of the season.

In it return of Formula 1 to China After five years of absence due to the covid-19 pandemic, Verstappen won the classification over his teammate, the Mexican Sergio Pérez, and the Spanish veteran Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin).

“We qualified very well and then in the race we don't have the pace of those in front (…) tomorrow (Sunday) will be a defensive race where sooner or later they will overtake us, but we are not going to apologize for qualifying well,” he analyzed. the 42-year-old pilot for the Spanish broadcaster DAZN.

Lando Norris will accompany Alonso on the second line, from fourth position. Behind him, the Briton will have his McLaren teammate, the Australian Oscar Piastri (5th) and to Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 6th.

– “A good scare” for Sainz –

The other Ferrari, that of Carlos Sainz, will start from 7th position. The Spaniard crashed into a wall at high speed during Q2, the second part of qualifying, damaging the front of his car.

“It was a good scare but I managed to change the direction in which I was going to crash a little at the last moment and crash at a good angle, which allowed me not to damage the suspension and the wing,” Sainz told DAZN.

The pilot was able to benefit from a session interruption required to clear the trackwhich gave the 'Scuderia' mechanics time to change the front wing, allowing the Spaniard to achieve a place in the 'Top 10' and therefore moving into Q3.

For its part, Zhou Guanyu, who was acclaimed by the public local since the beginning of the weekend, he will start on Sunday from the 16th at the wheel of his Sauber. The Shanghai native, who reached the elite of motorsport in 2022, is the first Chinese driver in history to compete in a Grand Prix in China.

The Chinese GP is the first of the six races of the season with the sprint race formatwhich modifies the normal development of the weekend.

The drivers only had one free practice session on Friday before a qualifying session to determine the starting grid for Saturday's sprint race, won by Verstappen hours before this “classic” qualifying session.

In the sprint race, the Dutchman won ahead of the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who will start from 18th position on Sunday, having had his worst qualifying session since 2022 this Saturday.