George Russell drops a 3-word verdict on “bro” Lewis Hamilton’s pole position in China sprint race

George Russell reacted to Lewis Hamilton's latest pole in Formula 1 with a comment on the latter's Instagram post. The new Ferrari driver claimed the 2025 Chinese GP Sprint qualifying pole ahead of Max Verstappen to register his first-ever pole for the Prancing Horse.

Hamilton pulled off a stunning lap to qualify for the first place for Saturday's Sprint race ahead of the reigning world champion Verstappen. He was 0.018 seconds faster than the Dutchman, and 0.080 seconds faster than McLaren's Oscar Piastri.

As Hamilton registered a brilliant 1:30.849 on the timesheet, he easily broke Michael Schumacher's long-standing record of pole position (1:32:238) he set in 2004 with Ferrari. Sharing his achievement, the Briton shared a series of photos on his social media account, Instagram. He wrote with a caption,

"POLE. MEGA result. From lap one the car just came alive !! The team has done a great job since the last race and hard work pays off. Still work to do, and I can’t wait to go again, especially in front of this crowd. The energy is always incredible. The real test is tomorrow ANDIAMO."

Reacting to the photos, George Russell, his former teammate at Mercedes left a comment and congratulated the Briton. He wrote,

"Great lap bro."

Here's the screenshot of Russell's comment on Hamilton's post on Instagram:

Credit: Lewis Hamilton on Instagram@lewishamilton

Lewis Hamilton left Mercedes at the end of 2024, after 12 long years. At Silver Arrows, he claimed six of his seven F1 titles and took 84 race wins. Hamilton and Russell raced together for three years from 2022 to 2024.

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How 'shocked' Lewis Hamilton reacted after his stunning Chinese GP Sprint qualifying pole?

After Riccardo Adami confirmed that Lewis Hamilton's time was the fastest on Friday in SQ3, he could not believe it. His disbelief also sparked in his post-sprint qualifying interview, where he spoke about the same.

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain drives the (44) Ferrari SF-25 during Sprint Qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China - Source: Getty

He said:

"I'm a bit in shock. I can't believe we got a pole in the sprint. It's not the main race so we have some work to do for tomorrow."

"I didn't expect that result but so happy and so proud. The last race was a disaster for us. We knew there was more performance in the car. It came alive from lap one."

While Hamilton made all the headlines on Friday, Russell qualified in fifth place ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris and behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. Hamilton's replacement in Mercedes, Kimi Antonelli, Racing Bull's Yuki Tsunoda, Williams' Alex Albon, and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll wrapped up the top 10.