Russell suggests that Mercedes have made great strides with their starts

Mercedes sent a powerful message to the rest of the field at the Shanghai International Circuit, backing up their 1–2 finish in practice with an equally commanding performance in Sprint Qualifying.

George Russell secured Sprint pole with a composed and confident display, while rookie sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli pushed him all the way to lock out the front row for the Silver Arrows.

Russell looked in complete control throughout the session, his W17 appearing “on rails” as he topped all three segments of qualifying. His final lap—1:31.520—was enough to secure the first Sprint pole of his career, continuing Mercedes’ strong early‑season momentum.

“I am happy that we were able to secure pole position for tomorrow’s Sprint race, the first Sprint pole of my career,” Russell said afterwards.

“The W17 has been feeling great the entire day, and we’ve been able to make the most out of the car in today’s qualifying session. When the wind picked up in SQ3, we began to lose some speed on the straights, like others, but still managed to put all the sectors together and secure a front row for tomorrow’s race.”

Despite the dominant showing, Russell remained cautious about the challenges ahead. “Despite our pace, we are cautious of the threat posed by others. We also know that anything can happen during a Sprint race, especially at the start.

"We’ve been working hard with the team on our getaways from the grid and have plenty of learnings from Melbourne. We will also need to focus on tyre management as we always see a lot of graining at this track. We’ll keep working overnight to ensure a good Sprint race tomorrow but also a successful qualifying session for Sunday’s Grand Prix.”

Antonelli, meanwhile, continued to impress in his debut season. The Italian teenager matched Russell in the first two sectors of his final lap but was unable to extract the same performance in the final third of the circuit, ultimately finishing just under three‑tenths behind. Even so, his effort secured a front‑row start and reinforced Mercedes’ status as the team to beat.

“Securing a front row for tomorrow’s race is a good way to start the weekend,” Antonelli said. “Congratulations to George for Sprint pole too; this continues our strong form as a team from Melbourne.

"Despite that, we know there is still a lot of work to do to improve. We will go through all the data from Friday and analyse how we can put ourselves in the best possible position for the Sprint but also the all‑important Qualifying session.”

Antonelli also highlighted the key challenges Mercedes will face on Saturday. “Tyre management can be challenging here, and our starts were a limiting factor last weekend; we need to put all this together to perform as best as we can and fight for victory and pole tomorrow.

"The overall positive is that the car felt good all day today. We need to keep it in that good window and, if we can do so, then I think we can bring home strong points in the Sprint. I’m looking forward to racing tomorrow and continuing this first Sprint weekend of the season.”

The only moment of concern for Mercedes came when Antonelli was investigated for impeding Lando Norris earlier in the session, but the stewards opted to take no further action.