George Russell takes pole for the F1 Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix

SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 13: Pole position qualifier George Russell of Great Britain and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team receives his Pirelli Sprint Pole award from Dario Marrafuschi, Head of Motorsport of Pirelli during Sprint qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 13, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Mark Sutton - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images) | Formula 1 via Getty Images

Two races, two pole positions for George Russell in the 2026 Formula 1 season.

After taking pole, and eventually the win, at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix the Mercedes driver captured P1 for the F1 Sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix. As we saw last week, it was another front-row lockout for the Silver Arrows, as teammate Kimi Antonelli secured P2 to start alongside Russell in the Sprint.

Lando Norris delivered a strong performance to take P3, where he will start alongside Lewis Hamilton, who qualified fourth. While Ferrari did run their “flip-flop” rear wing during FP1, the team returned to a more conventional design for the qualifying session.

Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc will line up for the F1 Sprint race on the third row, while Pierre Gasly will start seventh, next to Max Verstappen who qualified eighth. The Red Bull driver aired his frustrations after the qualifying session, describing the whole day as a “disaster.”

Here are the provisional qualifying results for the F1 Sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix. Note that race officials are currently investigating a potential impeding incident between Gasly and Verstappen, and the outcome of that investigation could change the final grid:

Row	Position	Driver	Team	Position	Driver	Team
Row 1	1	George Russell	Mercedes	2	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes
Row 2	3	Lando Norris	McLaren	4	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari
Row 3	5	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	6	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari
Row 4	7	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	8	Max Verstappen	Red Bull
Row 5	9	Oliver Bearman	Haas	10	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull
Row 6	11	Nico Hülkenberg	Audi	12	Esteban Ocon	Haas
Row 7	13	Liam Lawson	VCARB	14	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi
Row 8	15	Arvid Lindblad	VCARB	16	Franco Colapinto	Alpine
Row 9	17	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Williams	18	Alexander Albon	Williams
Row 10	19	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	20	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin
Row 11	21	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	22	Sergio Pérez	Cadillac

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