Oscar Piastri took his first-ever pole position for a Formula 1 grand prix as he set the pace in China.

Starting from the front could prove to be vital given how badly the field struggled with tyre degradation throughout the sprint race.

Piastri previously started on the front row on seven occasions but secured his first pole on Saturday with an impressive time of 1m30.641s, with McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in third.

Piastri had taken second place in the sprint race earlier in the day but now has the chance to convert pole position into grand prix victory on Sunday.

Norris had topped the timesheets in Q1 and Q2 but failed to hook up his final attempt and bailed into the pits instead of taking the flag, admitting once again he had made “a couple of mistakes”.

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Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon rounded out the top 10, with starting position key given the tyre management issues so far in Shanghai.
Haas has looked more on it this weekend and Esteban Ocon will start 11th, ahead of the team’s former driver Nico Hulkenberg who will be aiming for back-to-back points finishes for Sauber.
The two Aston Martins will start alongside one another on row seven with Fernando Alonso just creeping ahead of Lance Stroll in the closing stages of Q2.
In what was another difficult day at his new team, Carlos Sainz could only manage 15th, having admitted on Friday that he was still yet to feel at home at Williams.
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Chinese Grand Prix qualifying results

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Mark Mann-Bryans

Formula 1

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