Oscar Piastri labelled the Mercedes superiority as “pretty impressive” after the Silver Arrows secured yet another 1-2 in Formula 1 qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race.
Mercedes is the team that has nailed the switch to these all-new 2026 cars, as at last weekend’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix it secured a 1-2 in both qualifying and the race.
It continued such rich form in Shanghai with George Russell once again leading Kimi Antonelli, this time the Briton taking pole by 0.289s with McLaren’s Lando Norris next fastest in third.
The reigning world champion was 0.621s off pole ahead of fourth-placed Lewis Hamilton, with Norris’ team-mate Piastri in fifth and seven tenths behind Russell in qualifying for Saturday’s race.
Piastri said: “It was reasonable. I think the step in grip from the medium to the soft was pretty big. But yeah, obviously the gap to Mercedes is pretty impressive.
“So, some things for us to try and work on. I think the car felt pretty good. It was a pretty decent lap. I don’t think there was too much left.”
Those thoughts were echoed by his team boss Andrea Stella, who was more impressed at being in the fight with Ferrari as it took fourth via Hamilton and sixth through Charles Leclerc.
“There’s some indications of improvements,” said Stella. “Especially I would say in the way we understand how to use the power unit, there was less variability in the first practice session, more clarity as to how we were using it during qualifying.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images
“This was realised in some better lap times, which allow us to qualify behind Mercedes, that at the moment are out of reach.
“But it’s good to see that McLaren can fight for the runner-up position together with Ferrari, a good start position with Oscar and Lando, they both drove very well and it’s a good situation for the sprint tomorrow.”
That comes after Ferrari was Mercedes’ biggest threat in Melbourne with third and fourth, whereas McLaren was someway behind in fifth through Norris while Piastri crashed out pre-race.
“P3 is as good as we can do for the time being,” said Norris. “I’m actually pretty happy to beat both the Ferraris today because they seemed pretty good the whole day.
“Good position for tomorrow. Certainly things have been better this weekend, just because the track’s a lot more simple from that side of things, from a power unit side of things.
“So everyone kind of falls in line a bit more, but we certainly seemed to get a good amount out of it at the end and it was close. So a good lap put me in a good position.”
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