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L10 Isack Hadjar lost a place to Pierre Gasly but the Alpine driver decides the position is worth more than the damage to his front-left and goes deeper into turn one to take him back.
L9 Lambiase to Verstappen: “You can play with lines, but just don’t let that result in a net increase in slip.”
Verstappen responds to that and draws within DRS range of Hamilton.
L7 Lambiase warns Verstappen that Piastri is using DRS behind him. Verstappen is 1.4s off Hamilton.
L6 Lawson gets another place from Ocon.
The stewards have noted Lawson for potentially causing a collision when he passed Doohan.
Lambiase to Verstappen: “Piastri saving less in one, Hamilton saving more, 15 laps remaining.”
Nico Hulkenberg started from the pit lane due to a suspension set-up change. Liam Lawson moved up one place from last as a result of that and he’s just passed Jack Doohan for 18th.
Lambiase to Verstappen: “Currently Piastri managing, turn seven.”
L3 Hamilton has just eked out a one second lead over Verstappen, moving fractionally beyond DRS range. Lambiase tells Verstappen the gap was “1.0”.
Russell moves up to fourth ahead of Piastri, Tsunoda has moved up two places to sixth.
Norris makes a mistake in turn nine and slips down to ninth. If they finish like this, Verstappen will tie him for the points lead.
The Shanghai sprint race is go! Hamilton keeps his lead from Verstappen.
Hamilton takes up his place on pole position ahead of Verstappen, Piastri and the rest.
No surprises in the tyre choices – every single driver is starting on the medium rubber. The softs won’t go the distance and they’re stashing the hard tyres for the grand prix.
Hamilton asking race engineer Riccardo Adami whether he was looking after his tyres more than team mate Charles Leclerc on his way to the grid.
But will there be much of a spectacle in this 19-lap encounter? While F1 sells its sprint races as flat-out blasts to the chequered flag, practice showed the drivers are going to have to manage their tyres carefully in order to complete the distance.
Gratefully taking advantage of McLaren’s poor tactics in SQ3 were Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Any race which starts with those two on the front row is likely to produce fireworks.
Qualifying yesterday produced a surprise as McLaren, who looked like the team to beat after practice, slipped up. Lando Norris could only manage sixth on the grid, three places behind Oscar Piastri.
The sprint race at the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix is coming up next.
2025 Chinese Grand Prix
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