F1 Qualifying Results: McLaren roar back as Red Bull suffer shock early exit

Oscar Piastri took his first pole in Formula 1 at the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday, setting a new lap record at the Shanghai International Circuit in the process.

George Russell set a brilliant time at the very tail end of the session to put his car on the front row alongside the Australian, bouncing the second McLaren of Lando Norris down into third.

Liam Lawson's disastrous start to his Red Bull career has continued, qualifying slowest of all 20 drivers for the second time in as many days.

The New Zealander fought back up to 14th in Saturday morning's sprint race, spiking some hope of a revival in qualifying for Sunday's feature race, but the afternoon went off the rails once again.

Jack Doohan's prospects of keeping his Alpine seat ahead of highly touted prospect Franco Colapinto were delivered another blow by his own hands, spinning off the track to damage his chances of getting a good banker lap in, and qualifying just 18th.

Meanwhile, the Racing Bulls pair of Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda both made it into the top 10 on the grid.

F1 Qualifying Results: Chinese Grand Prix 2025

1. Oscar Piastri [McLaren] - 1:30.641sec
2. George Russell [Mercedes] - +0.082sec
3. Lando Norris [McLaren] - +0.152sec
4. Max Verstappen [Red Bull] - +0.176sec
5. Lewis Hamilton [Ferrari] - +0.286sec
6. Charles Leclerc [Ferrari] - +0.380sec
7. Isack Hadjar [Racing Bulls] - +0.438sec
8. Kimi Antonelli [Mercedes] - +0.462sec
9. Yuki Tsunoda [Racing Bulls] - +0.997sec
10. Alex Albon [Williams] - +1.065sec

ELIMINATED IN Q2

11. Esteban Ocon [Haas]
12. Nico Hulkenberg [Sauber]
13. Fernando Alonso [Aston Martin]
14. Lance Stroll [Aston Martin]
15. Carlos Sainz [Williams]

ELIMINATED IN Q1

16. Pierre Gasly [Alpine]
17. Ollie Bearman [Haas]
18. Jack Doohan [Alpine]
19. Gabriel Bortoleto [Sauber]
20. Liam Lawson [Red Bull]

How does F1 Qualifying work?

The qualifying session is split into three finite windows, which provide a dramatic prelude to Sunday's race.

The bottom five drivers are eliminated at the end of Q1, with a further five eliminated after Q2.

Then, Q3 gives us a shootout between the remaining 10 drivers in the battle for positions at the front of the grid.

After a thrilling start to the season, round two of the Formula 1 world championship arrives this weekend in the city of Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix, where the first Sprint of 2025 also took place.

Last time out, Lando Norris took a superb victory at the Australian Grand Prix to open up the season, bringing home his McLaren just ahead of defending world champion Max Verstappen for Red Bull, with George Russell third for Mercedes on Sunday.

But now focus immediately switches to China where the likes of Ferrari and their duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton will be hoping to improve on their grand prix results of 8th and 10th in Melbourne.

Albert Park proved to be a tricky event for the drivers with random downpours and slippery track conditions with little room for error, but how will the weather fare at the Chinese Grand Prix?

Rain is far from rare in Shanghai, so make sure you keep up to date with GPFans throughout the weekend for the latest forecast from the circuit.

Chinese Grand Prix weather forecast

Friday, March 21: Practice and sprint qualifying

Following a rather lacklustre practice session, sprint qualifying took place at 3:30pm local time, with temperatures picking up for the second of Friday's two sessions.

Temperatures peaked at 24 degrees Celsius for the first sprint qualifying of 2025, which also took place under dry conditions.

Saturday, March 22: Sprint race and qualifying

The Sprint kicked off the day's action at 11am local time on Saturday, with very similar temperatures to the previous day's practice and sprint qualifying sessions, with again no rain around the circuit.

Qualifying saw temperatures reach 25 degrees Celsius, much higher than the average for this time of year in Shanghai, with rain once again nowhere to be seen when the action got underway at 3pm local time and throughout the session.

Sunday, March 23: Race

The fine temperatures should continue into Sunday with a high of 27 degrees Celsius. Despite less than a five per cent chance of rain for lights out at 3pm local time, the session could be the cloudiest of the weekend, featuring a gentle breeze from the west.

The current forecast doesn't predict rain to fall for the main event on Sunday throughout the expected hour-and-a-half run time, but, the longer the race goes on, the more the chance of rain increases, with early Sunday evening expected to be wet in Shanghai.

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