Lewis Hamilton left laughing as he claims shock pole position for Chinese GP Sprint race
By Simon Head
Lewis Hamilton had the Ferrari team celebrating in the pit garage as he produced a brilliant lap to pip Max Verstappen and capture pole position for Saturday's Sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
Hamilton edged out Verstappen by just 0.018 seconds to claim pole, and appeared shocked when his race engineer told him that he'd done enough to secure P1 for the Sprint race.
RELATED: Lewis Hamilton explains reason for disappointing Ferrari debut at Australian GP
"Really?" he said as he started laughing in the cockpit of his Ferrari.
"Haha! Mega job! Woo!"
The second row of the grid for the Sprint race will feature McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Hamilton's Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, while the third row will be occupied by the British duo of George Russell and Lando Norris.
But the story of the session was undoubtedly Hamilton, who was clearly taken aback by his pace after a frustrating Australian Grand Prix last weekend.
"I didn't expect that result but so, so happy and so proud," he said after the session.
"Clearly the last race was a disaster for us but we knew there was more pace in the car.
"I'm a bit shocked. I can't believe we got a pole in the Sprint!
"I'm just a bit gobsmacked, taken back by it. I didn't know when we would get to this position.
"After last weekend, it was a difficult start to the week. We came here with aggression and wanting to go into the weekend and get the car into a great place.
"I started out straight away with a better feeling in the car. I can't believe we are at the front, ahead of a McLaren which has been so fast throughout winter testing, Australia and even today."
Hamilton's performance in Sprint qualifying received rave reviews from Sky Sports' F1 commentator Martin Brundle, who said, "You could see straight away in the first four turns, Hamilton had it on point.
"The car was really stable and he was hustling the throttle and he got the tyres, pressures and temperatures absolutely in the window, so did Max."
Fellow Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok was similarly impressed.
"What a story! Lewis Hamilton is on pole!" he exclaimed.
"We didn't get a fairytale moment in Melbourne but we only had to wait six days.
"It's justified his move in some ways. He's re-energised, re-invigorated, re-motivated but most importantly, he's delivered on the timesheets."
MORE TOP STORIES from The Big Lead
NFL: Mock Draft 14.0(!): New QB in the mix
MLB: League says 25 million Japanese watched Cubs-Dodgers
CBB/SPORTS MEDIA: Lady Gaga is the new voice of March Madness
NBA/SPORTS MEDIA:LaVar Ball tells SLAM all about his health issues