Lewis Hamilton wins pole position in the sprint for Ferrari at the Chinese F1 Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton wins pole position in the sprint for Ferrari at the Chinese F1 Grand Prix
Hamilton arrived in China after a disappointing season-opening race last weekend in Australia, where he finished 10th. (AFP)
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Updated 21 March 2025

Lewis Hamilton wins pole position in the sprint for Ferrari at the Chinese F1 Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton wins pole position in the sprint for Ferrari at the Chinese F1 Grand Prix
  • Hamilton arrived in China after a disappointing season-opening race last weekend in Australia, where he finished 10th
  • He only managed fourth fastest in opening practice Friday for a modest improvement in Shanghai

SHANGHAI: Lewis Hamilton has astonished the crowd and himself by securing his maiden Sprint pole position for Ferrari in the final moments of qualifying at the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix.
Hamilton arrived in China after a disappointing season-opening race last weekend in Australia, where he finished 10th. He only managed fourth fastest in opening practice Friday for a modest improvement in Shanghai.
He topped the first section of sprint qualifying, before the dominant McLaren of Lando Norris took over in SQ2. An aborted lap from the McLaren driver, following a mistake on his final lap, handed Hamilton his chance – and the seven-time world champion took it in stunning style with less than a minute remaining.
Hamilton’s time was just 18 one-thousandths of a second ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, with Norris’ McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri third. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth, with Mercedes’ George Russell closing out the top-five.
“I didn’t expect that result, but so, so happy and so proud,” Hamilton said. “I think obviously the last race was a disaster. Clearly we knew that there was more performance in the car but we just weren’t able to extract it,” in Melbourne.
“So to come here to a track that I love — and the car really came alive. The team did a fantastic job to get the car ready and yeah, I’m a bit in shock.”


Juventus held to scoreless home draw in Turin derby

Juventus held to scoreless home draw in Turin derby
Updated 10 sec ago

Juventus held to scoreless home draw in Turin derby

Juventus held to scoreless home draw in Turin derby
Juve are fifth in the standings on 19 points from 11 games, two points behind Inter Milan
Conceicao also had a shot from a wide angle go narrowly the wrong side of the upright

TURIN, Italy: Juventus largely dominated but were unable to get the better of neighbors Torino in a 0-0 home draw on Saturday, dealing a blow to Luciano Spalletti’s side’s hopes of gaining ground in the Serie A title race.
The hosts had won their last two Serie A games since sacking manager Igor Tudor, one of those victories coming in Spalletti’s first game in charge, but a largely toothless derby display left the crowd frustrated.
Juve are fifth in the standings on 19 points from 11 games, two points behind Inter Milan, AC Milan and AS Roma, who all have a match in hand, with leaders Napoli on 22 points ahead of Sunday’s game at Bologna. Torino are in 11th place on 14 points.
The opening half may have been mostly one-way traffic but Juventus struggled to create any real opportunities against their neighbors, any half-chances that came their way inspired by Francisco Conceicao.
The Portuguese winger played a decent ball into Dusan Vlahovic just outside the six-yard area but Torino defender Guillermo Maripan did well to get ahead of the Serbian striker to clear the danger.
Conceicao also had a shot from a wide angle go narrowly the wrong side of the upright. If Conceicao provided a spark on the right side, Kenan Yildiz on the left is still struggling to live up to the number 10 jersey.
Yildiz was often guilty of losing possession, and on the rare occasion he managed to go past his marker, his final ball let him down.
Spalletti cut a frustrated figure on the sidelines, pacing his technical area and only standing still to take notes. But his halftime team talk did little to alter proceedings, if anything Torino grew in confidence and began to threaten.
The visitors, who had not beaten Juventus in their last 20 league meetings, never really looked like changing that statistic, but substitute Che Adams forced Michele Di Gregorio into a save with a powerful strike.
Spalletti changed things up, Edon Zhegrova and Jonathan David coming on, with Conceicao and Vlahovic, somewhat surprisingly, replaced.
Zhegrova whipped in a cross for Weston McKennie but keeper Alberto Paleari parried away the header, and try as Juventus might, a goal proved elusive.