McLaren plan backfires as Mercedes' F1 dominance continues in Chinese sprint qualifying

Mercedes' dominant start to this F1 season has continued, controlling the front row for China's sprint race on Saturday.

George Russell claimed pole comfortably, nearly a third of a second ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli.

Antonelli meanwhile has an awkward wait after stewards noted an incident with McLaren's Lando Norris, who came in third.

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Antonelli's Mercedes appeared to block Norris as he completed his lap in SQ1, something that could cost him a few spots on the grid.

Aussie Oscar Piastri came in fifth. Both McLarens only completed one lap in SQ3, leaving little margin for error, and Piastri appeared to go slightly wide on the final corner, ultimately seeing him finish narrowly behind Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton.

"The gap to Mercedes is pretty impressive," Piastri said afterwards.

"We'll go have a look at where we're losing time."

Most other drivers in SQ3 got the chance to run multiple laps, but the McLarens went all-in on fresh tyres, hoping to pinch a spot at the front of the grid, but no luck.

Charles Leclerc, Pierre Gasly, Max Verstappen, Oliver Bearman and Isack Hadjar made up the remainder of the top 10.

Verstappen's struggles with the new cars this season continued, complaining multiple times about his lack of control behind the wheel.

He will start the sprint in eighth.

Eliminated in SQ1: Sergio Perez (Cadillac), Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Alex Albon (Williams), Carlos Sainz (Williams).

Eliminated in SQ2: Franco Colapinto (Alpine), Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls), Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi), Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls), Esteban Ocon (Haas), Nico Hulkenberg (Audi).

Perez of the new Cadillac team did not take part in sprint qualifying after a fuel system issue could not be fixed in time.

Earlier, two incidents in the space of a minute put Lewis Hamilton immediately on the back foot for the Chinese Grand Prix.

The sole practice session of the weekend was barely minutes old when he appeared to turn in on the McLaren of Lando Norris at the final corner.

It looked to be a miscommunication between the drivers and their teams - both drivers were on out laps, and were trying to give space before starting flying laps.

It looks like Norris decided to go around the Ferrari, just as Hamilton decided it was time to go. By the time they got to the corner, Norris was down the inside, and an unsighted Hamilton turned in and they made contact.

Former driver Anthony Davidson described the moment as "bizarre" in commentary, and speculated a piece of debris that came off one of the cars was likely a piece of the Ferrari's floor.

Moments later, Hamilton's session hit another hurdle, when he had a wild spin under braking for a tight hairpin.

As Hamilton hit the brakes, the rear wheels looked as if they immediately locked, sending the seven-time champion sliding sideways into the run-off.

Ferrari have brought to China its radical rotisserie rear wing, which flips 180 degrees when in 'straight mode'. The rear wings on all other cars fold open like the DRS flap of last year.

Replays showed the lock-up coincided with Hamilton's rear wing returning to the correct position, but Davidson suggested the wing was unlikely to have caused the spin.

Stewards noted the incident between Hamilton and Norris, but declared there would be no further investigation, and therefore no penalty.

The Chinese Grand Prix is the first sprint weekend of the year, meaning this was the only practice session for the entire weekend.

George Russell topped the session for Mercedes, ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli.

The McLaren duo of Norris and Oscar Piastri were third and fourth respectively, albeit more than half a second behind Russell.

The traditional grand prix qualifying session will then be held on Saturday evening, before the 56-lap race on Sunday.

CHINESE GRAND PRIX PRACTICE RESULTS