Sawt Falasteen - Kimi Antonelli takes Chinese GP pole, youngest in F1 history

Antonelli led a Mercedes front-row lockout along with George Russell and erased the record of Sebastian Vettel, who was 21 when he took pole for the Italian Grand Prix in 2008.

The Mercedes duo, as in Australia last weekend, have been dominant in Shanghai.

Antonelli blasted round in 1min 32.064sec on his final qualifying lap, 0.222sec ahead of championship leader Russell, who had won the sprint race earlier in the day.

"It was a pretty clean session," said Antonelli. "No mistakes and looking forward to the race tomorrow."

The Ferrari pair of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will fill the second row of the grid for Sunday's race after qualifying third and fourth.

Then, on a two-by-two grid, came the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and world champion Lando Norris.

Max Verstappen was only eighth fastest, continuing a very unhappy weekend in a clearly struggling Red Bull.

- 'Damage limitation' -

Pierre Gasly was seventh in the Alpine with the second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar ninth and Oliver Bearman's Haas rounding out the top 10.

Russell had got stuck in gear on his opening out lap in Q3 and had to return to the pits.

After the problem had been fixed it left him time for just one flying lap and he was unable to eclipse his teammate.

"Really happy for George who had an issue there," said Antonelli of his teammate.

Russell said he was relieved to have set a lap time right at the end of the session.

"Definitely damage limitation," said Russell.

"In Q2 the front wing broke, and then in Q3 I stopped out on track and then couldn't change gear," he said.

"On the last lap I had no battery, no tyre temp or anything. The team did a really good job. Just really happy to be standing here. It could've been much worse."

Ferrari have been quick out of the blocks at the start of races so far and Hamilton said he would be eyeing up the two Mercedes in front of him on Sunday.

"I'm sure we'll have some fun, I'm looking forward to it," said the seven-time world champion.

The six failing to make it into the top-10 shootout for pole position were Nico Hulkenberg in an Audi, Franco Colapinto's Alpine, Esteban Ocon (Haas), Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad of Racing Bulls, and Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi)

Eliminated in Q1 were the Williams pair of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, both Aston Martins, driven by Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, and the two Cadillacs, in the hands of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.

Russell earlier won a thrilling sprint race after a back-and-forth scrap in the opening laps with Hamilton, who eventually finished third behind Leclerc.

It enabled the Mercedes driver, who won the opening race in Australia, to extend his championship lead to 11 points over teammate Antonelli and Leclerc. Hamilton is a further four points back.

Sunday's grand prix will be raced over 56 laps of the 5.451km Shanghai International Circuit.

G.AbuOdeh--SF-PST