"Really?": Lewis Hamilton shocked as he rocks F1 world by securing pole position for Chinese GP sprint

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton was left shocked after he secured the fastest time at the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix Sprint qualifying session on Friday. The seven-time F1 world champion looked the more comfortable of the two Ferrari drivers at the Shanghai International Circuit throughout the day.

Heading into the Sprint Qualifying, everyone expected a similar outcome as last weekend's Australian Grand Prix, where McLaren locked out the front row by a significant margin over the rivals.

However, both McLaren drivers made key mistakes in their final laps, which resulted in Oscar Piastri finishing in P3 while Lando Norris abandoned his final push lap to come home in P6.

On his team radio, Lewis Hamilton was left shocked when his race engineer, Ricardo Adami informed him that he was the fastest driver at the end of Sprint Qualifying.

"Really? Hahaha! Mega job. Woo!" Hamilton said.

In his post-Sprint quali interview, Hamilton further elaborated on his feelings about finishing P1 and felt that this result put them in a good position going forward.

"To come here to a track I love, Shanghai is a beautiful place, the weather has been amazing and the car came alive from lap one. We made some great changes, the team did a fantastic job in the break to get the car ready. I can't believe we got a pole for the Sprint! It puts us in good stead for the race."

The 40-year-old finished over two-tenths ahead of his new teammate Charles Leclerc who could only manage to secure a second row by claiming P4.

---

Lewis Hamilton expresses gratitude after securing Sprint pole

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton reiterated that he was "gobsmacked" by the result and was grateful that he was able to compete with the fastest drivers despite only racing in a second race for the Italian team.

Speaking with Sky Sports, the former Mercedes driver felt it was a pleasant turn of events after the team's underwhelming outing in Melbourne last week.

"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. I'm really grateful to be up there with these great drivers and be so close to all these other teams."

Lewis Hamilton will be accompanied by his long-time rival and Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen, who finished 0.018 seconds behind the former on the grid, and Oscar Piastri a mere 0.080s behind the duo for the Sprint on Saturday.