2025 F1 Chinese GP Sprint Shootout: Top 5 Key Takeaways

The 2025 F1 Chinese GP sprint shootout served as a reminder of how brilliant a talent Lewis Hamilton is. The driver secured pole position for the sprint on Saturday, marking his first big result with Ferrari.

The F1 Chinese GP sprint shootout was an intriguing one as we had McLaren be more or less dominant in SQ1 and SQ2. As soon as we reached SQ3, while other teams could catch up, both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri struggled to retaliate to the competitive lap times set by rivals.

In the end, we had Lewis Hamilton securing a shock pole position with Max Verstappen right alongside him in P2. On the second row we have Oscar Piastri in P3 and Charles Leclerc in P4. Lando Norris had a disappointing run as he could only secure a P6 start for the sprint.

So with the F1 Chinese GP sprint shootout of the season now done and dusted, what did we learn? Let's take a look.

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2025 F1 Chinese GP Sprint Shootout: What did we learn?

#1 Lewis Hamilton is getting there with the car

It was always coming, wasn't it? From the first lap in SQ1, you could see that Lewis Hamilton had the edge over his teammate over a lap. He just continued to build on it, and ultimately he got the job done in the end.

Last season as well, Lewis Hamilton did pull a rabbit out of the hat in the F1 Chinese GP with a front-row start, so this shouldn't come as a surprise. With that being said, the fact that Charles Leclerc was quite clearly humbled by his legendary teammate in just their second head-to-head should tell you that Hamilton is slowly getting there with the car.

It just bodes well for the season, as now Hamilton can build on this and not just play catch-up against Charles Leclerc.

#2 McLaren is a difficult car to drive

McLaren is a fast car. There's no doubt about it. But it's not a car that's very easy to nail at the ragged edge. This was something that Lando Norris himself claimed on Thursday in the press conference, and it was quite obvious even today in qualifying as both drivers appeared to struggle to nail that final lap.

In terms of performance, however, McLaren is still just faster. Whether that would hold true in the F1 Chinese GP Sprint is interesting because one thing is clear: the gaps are so small that even small mistakes get punished in the sport.

#3 Max Verstappen keeps chipping away

Helmut Marko feels that Red Bull could close the gap to McLaren in terms of performance by 3 to 5 races. Whether that would happen or not is something only time will tell. The one thing that seems certain, though, for now is that Max Verstappen is making sure that he's not leaving anything on the table until that happens.

This was another brilliant lap laptime from the driver, who admittedly did not think the car had a front row in it. The F1 Chinese GP sprint for Max Verstappen would be all about extracting the best from the car and maybe even picking up a win if he can.

#4 The new kids are alright

Esteban Ocon was outqualified by Ollie Bearman. Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly got the same treatment from Gabriel Bortoleto and Jack Doohan. After the first race in Australia, a lot was said about the rookies making a few mistakes here and there.

The sprint shootout was a good reminder of how talented the new crop is. Jack Doohan especially would be bearing with confidence as the Australian was finally able to show what he's capable of in the car.

#5 There's still a gulf between the top 4 and the rest

This was something that we had predicted in our F1 Chinese GP preview. While the gap appears to have narrowed down, it does appear that the top 4 are still a step ahead of the bottom 6. This was on evidence in the sprint shootout as well.

Except for Liam Lawson, who is going through what seemingly every Max Verstappen teammate has done since 2019, the top 7 was more or less locked by the drivers from the top 4 teams. As the season progresses, maybe we might see a few changes, but for now it does appear that the opportunities for pulling off a surprise result continue to be low in 2025 as well.