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Lewis Hamilton is the first
pole-sitter of the Shanghai weekend. The Ferrari driver secured the top slot
on the grid for tomorrow’s Sprint with a brilliant lap in Q3, the only
segment of the session which, according to the regulations, is contested
using the Soft compound tyre. The seven-time world champion stopped the
clocks in 1’30”849, just 18 thousandths of a second quicker than four-time
world champion, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Third, 80 thousandths down was
Australia’s Oscar Piastri for McLaren, who had initially been quickest on
his first run. His team-mate, Lando Norris, had been quickest in Q2, setting
the best time on the Medium tyre – which must be used for the first two
sessions - of 1’31”174.
As was also the case in Melbourne, there were
no fewer than seven teams represented in the top ten, showing just how
evenly matched they are in this early stage of the season.
THE DAY ON TRACK
This event’s only free practice session saw all the teams use just one set
of Medium and one of Soft per driver, a clear indication that they plan to
keep both sets of Hard for Sunday’s race. The only exception was Jack Doohan
who only ran one set of Mediums.
The new track surface saw lap times
drop significantly compared to last year, which was the only edition of the
Chinese Grand Prix run with this current generation of car. However,
Hamilton’s time was even better than the 1’31”095 set by Sebastian Vettel
when he took pole in 2018.
SIMONE BERRA – CHIEF ENGINEER
“We were all very keen to see how the tyres would behave on this completely
new surface. We had some data prior to arriving in Shanghai and, from the
measurements we then carried out here in recent days, we had noticed that
the abrasion level of the track was significantly lower than last year, with
a much smoother surface and fewer of the bumps that had been a feature of
this track in the past.
From what we saw today, we can say that the
level of grip generated on this surface is really surprising: rarely have we
witnessed such a significant improvement in times – with the same car
technical regulations – as we did today. Hamilton’s time is over five
seconds quicker than the best time from last year’s Sprint Qualifying, which
becomes 4”873 when comparing it with the same compound. It was even faster
than Vettel’s pole lap from seven years ago when the cars were completely
different, being 66 kilos. Given that the track is still evolving, it’s
possible times will drop even more tomorrow! Furthermore, we must bear in
mind that the lack of bumps meant the teams were able to lower the ride
height of the cars, thus gaining even more performance.
With only 60
minutes of free practice, the teams weren’t able to do any significant long
runs with race fuel loads, which is always the case on a Sprint weekend. We
saw significant graining on the front left tyre, leading to degradation in
terms of performance, but without it having much impact on wear. In terms of
lap times, the degradation on the Medium and Soft seems quite high (between
two and three tenths) which is one reason why all teams decided to keep both
sets of Hards, almost certainly for Sunday afternoon.
Tomorrow’s
Sprint will be a great opportunity for everyone to do a real long run, thus
providing a clearer picture in terms of race strategy, even if the fuel load
will not be as much as the one needed to start the Grand Prix. On paper, the
most likely choice for the short race is the Medium. Last year, Russell did
reasonably well on the Soft, but it’s hard to see anyone attempting to do
the same tomorrow.” |
