McLaren’s rising star Oscar Piastri has clinched the first pole position of his Formula One career at the Chinese Grand Prix, setting the fastest lap ever recorded at the Shanghai International Circuit.
The young Australian clocked an impressive 1:30.641 in Saturday’s qualifying session, edging out Mercedes driver George Russell, who put in a formidable final lap of 1:30.723. Piastri’s teammate, Lando Norris, who leads the championship and won the season opener in Australia, will start third after abandoning his final lap while Piastri improved his time.
Red Bull’s four-time defending world champion, Max Verstappen, will line up fourth on the grid. The Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc secured fifth and sixth spots respectively, with Hamilton finishing 0.286 seconds off Piastri’s pole time after winning the earlier sprint race.
“The laps were a little bit scruffy, but I’m just pumped to be on pole,” an elated Piastri said after the session. Despite starting on the front row in Australia earlier this season, this marks his first official pole position, as he had previously only taken pole in sprint qualifying sessions.
Piastri becomes the first Australian to grab a Formula One pole since Daniel Ricciardo achieved the feat in Mexico in 2018, and the 107th different pole-sitter in the sport’s history. After finishing second in the sprint race, he now looks forward to a potential maiden Grand Prix victory on Sunday.
“It’s awesome to have Oscar get his first pole. He’s been close, a lot of front rows, and that was a mega lap,” said McLaren Chief Executive Zak Brown, praising the young driver’s performance.
Norris, who congratulated his teammate, was pleased with improvements to his own car after struggling in the sprint race. “We changed quite a lot on the car because we were nowhere,” he admitted, attributing earlier issues to both the car and driver errors.
As the grid lines up for Sunday’s race, all eyes will be on Piastri to see if he can convert his pole position into a victory and shake up the championship standings.
