2025 F1 Chinese GP Qualifying: Top 5 Key Takeaways

Oscar Piastri secured his first career pole position at the 2025 F1 Chinese GP qualifying. The McLaren driver aced the session in Q3, where his lap time was just not in the reach of what his teammate Lando Norris could do in the car.

The Australian will have another Brit in George Russell right alongside him in P2 on the front row. The second row would feature Lando Norris in P3 and Max Verstappen in P4. The session was not as straightforward for anyone as the gaps between the drivers were tantalizingly close, with the top 6 separated by just three tenths.

Having said that, with the F1 Chinese GP qualifying now in the rearview mirror, what did we learn? Let's take a look.

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2025 F1 Chinese GP Qualifying: What did we learn?

#1 McLaren can be fast but only when completely hooked up

McLaren might have the fastest car on the grid, but it's not as easy as many have made it appear. When hooked up, the car is on rails, and it's very hard to keep up. But that doesn't happen as easily as has been evidenced during the 2025 F1 Chinese GP.

Oscar Piastri, on his part, however, has nailed everything in Shanghai, and this puts him in a position from where he can not only lead the race but manage things well. Lando Norris, on the other hand, has not been happy with the car in general, and the qualifying session was just another example of the driver making a few mistakes here and there and not optimizing it.

For the time being, McLaren has a strong car, but is the car good enough to dominate the sport? Probably not.

#2 George Russell is finally becoming a leader at Mercedes

The way George Russell is slowly starting to blossom at Mercedes has been interesting to see. The driver was the benchmark already at the German team by last season, but a lot of the focus was on Lewis Hamilton. Now that the 7x champion is gone, Russell has slowly taken over.

He's acting like a leader off the track with his suggestions on the team radio, and he's making things happen on the track as well. At no point this weekend has Mercedes appeared to be within a tenth of McLaren. But that's what Russell pulled out of the car in the F1 Chinese GP qualifying to secure a front row.

The race is, of course, a different story, but it is interesting to see the evolution of someone who has always shown a lot of promise.

#3 The gap from P1 to P6 is around 3 tenths, that's close

Something that would and should alarm McLaren is the fact that the top 6 drivers were covered by just 3 tenths. That's the gap that existed between Oscar Piastri on the pole and Charles Leclerc in P6, 0.36 seconds. That's tiny margins in the sport, and that should tell you how compressed the field is right now.

The 2025 F1 Chinese GP qualifying was a good example of how relentless the world of Formula 1 is right now and how even a small mistake is going to cost a ton. The talks of the dominance of one team over the field are maybe a bit misguided, even though the race on Sunday is going to be the true indicator of what one can expect from the year.

#4 Ferrari underperformed

Inside the Ferrari garage, there would be questions asked from the team on how the pole sitter for the sprint is languishing in P5 and his teammate is in P6. Looking at the timesheets, it does appear that the team opted for a slightly different setup compared to the sprint for Lewis Hamilton, and it did not work.

The British driver was slower than his time in the sprint shootout while others improved. Charles Leclerc closed the gap to his teammate as he was within a tenth of him, but it does appear that Ferrari left something on the table for the F1 Chinese GP.

#5 Racing Bulls is a fast car

Isack Hadjar continued to impress as he got the jump on Kimi Antonelli in his Mercedes. What's even more impressive is the fact that Racing Bulls have been stunningly fast from the very first lap around this track. The car seems strong enough in the second sector, and that's where it is making up most of the time.

The race pace is still not as proven for this team, but if the car can replicate it in the long run, then we're looking at a scenario where this team can start getting closer to the top 4 teams.