McLaren's Piastri takes his first F1 pole at Chinese Grand Prix. Hamilton to start fifth

SHANGHAI (AP) — McLaren’s Oscar Piastri scored his maiden pole position in Formula 1 ahead of Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix by delivering two sizzling laps that were quick enough for the top spot ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell.

The 23-year-old Australian, who is maximizing his weekend with second in Saturday morning’s Sprint race, said he’s “pretty pumped” to go one better Sunday, with the major challenge being tire wear.

Piastri, who will start the 56-lap race two places ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris, set it up by putting it all on the line on his final Q3 lap.

“My first lap was honestly better than my second lap, but just at the end of the (back) straight I lost a bit of time and didn’t do the best hairpin," Piastri said.

“On the second lap,” he continued, "I was about two-tenths down on myself. So, I kind of just went ‘why not send it into the hairpin’ and I gained those back, and found a little bit more in the last corner. I was tempted to box before that, so I’m pretty happy now that I didn’t.”

Norris, who won the season opening Australian Grand Prix, will start ahead of his expected title rival, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was fourth.

Sprint winner Lewis Hamilton starts fifth for Ferrari ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc.

Russell will be on the front row for the 15th time and first since Qatar last year. The British driver was thrilled to split the McLarens given the pace deficit he previously highlighted.

“To be on the front row is a really great place to start,” Russell said.

Russell had also managed to pull out a searing final lap, describing the qualifying session as one of the hardest of his career, given the difficulty in managing the tires.

“The first lap in Q3, I was full-gas. And it seemed OK, I was thinking I was in P5 ... and then found four-tenths on my last lap,” he said.

Norris led the first segments of qualifying (Q1 and Q3) but said he’d done a “terrible job” in the session, having pitted on his final lap following a couple of mistakes.

"Oscar’s shown great pace. I definitely haven’t,” Norris said.

“Whenever we struggle with front (tire) graining, it’s something I just struggle with a lot," he added. "It’s difficult for me, it’s been a therefore difficult weekend, just trying to deal with those things. It’s not something I’m strong enough in.

The 25-year-old Norris said he has “a long night ahead of me” to analyze data “and see where I can improve for tomorrow.”

Racing Bulls, Red Bull’s second team, have again featured in the top 10, with F1 rookie Isack Hadjar — who crashed out of his opening race in Australia on the formation lap — set to start seventh, two places ahead of his experienced teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Hadjar was later fined 5,000 euros ($5,400) for an unsafe pit release, which put him in Verstappen's path.

Another rookie, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, is eighth for Mercedes.

Williams’ Alex Albon completed the top 10 and teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. will start from 15th.

Piastri’s first pole is also the first for an Australian since countryman Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull at the 2018 Mexican Grand Prix.

“It’s nice to do for myself, but it is also nice to do it for Australia as well," he said.

Sunday’s race starts at 3 p.m. local time (0700 GMT).

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AP Formula 1: https://apnews.com/hub/formula-one