Mercedes' domination continues in Shanghai

Russell on pole again in another Mercedes 1-2

It's so far been an even more dominant weekend by Mercedes with George Russell top of every session this weekend so far. Russell has now topped the last 9 consecutive competitive sessions, an accomplishment no driver did last season. The gap from 1st to 3rd in this session was 0.6 seconds. Kimi Antonelli was again slower than his teammate, but took 2nd with a time 3 tenths faster than Norris in 3rd. The Italian will be breathing a sigh of relief after he escaped a possible penalty for impeding Lando Norris at the start of a flying lap, allowing him to keep his P2. After qualifying, Russell said one of the main things Mercedes' had been working on was their race starts, as last week in Melbourne, Ferrari shot up the order, Leclerc going 4th to 1st by turn 1 thanks to the Scuderia's incredible starts. The sprint will reveal whether or not Mercedes' have been able to improve enough to match Ferrari or whether Ferrari still hold the edge at the start. 

Pierre Gasly out-qualifies former teammate Verstappen

Pierre Gasly and Alpine are looking very likely to have a far better season that 2025. Last week in Melbourne, Gasly finished P10 to score a point in the opening race, something that took 4 races for him and Alpine to do last year. And todays session has put him in with a chance of scoring more in the Sprint Race as he qualified P7, 4 tenths faster than his old teammate from his time at Red Bull, Max Verstappen. 

No 'macarena' rear-wing in Qualifying after an appearance in Practise

The most unique innovation seen so far in these new regulations has been Ferrari's 'macarena' rear-wing, which does a full 180 spin on itself when opened, rather than the normal 90. It was introduced by Ferrari to help reduce drag and increase downforce whilst in the new straight-line mode. When it was first seen on Day 2 of the second week of testing in Bahrain it immediately caught the attention of the world. Many wondered if it would be seen again, and in the only practise session of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, it did. However it was then off for Sprint Qualifying, Ferrari choosing not to run it due to possible issues with the reliability of it. Fans and rival teams will all be anticipating it's next appearance, with many eager to see how it performs in a qualifying or race session.