The Latest Breaking News from S Perez

Rain emerged at the end of the SQ2 session and continued to pepper the Shanghai circuit during the intermission, necessitating the use of intermediate tyres for the final stage of qualifying to decide pole.

The Red Bull drivers were amongst just a handful of drivers to gain time on the second runs in Q3, where Ferrari’s challenge failed to materialise and the Mercedes drivers ended up behind Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

Verstappen will start ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez and McLaren’s Lando Norris after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3. 

Under brighter and slightly warmer conditions compared to Friday, Verstappen lined up first at the end of the pitlane and led off on a long first stint on the mediums, which meant he set the first place benchmark at 1m30.265s, but was soon supplanted by the soft-shod Hamilton.

The F1 world champion led a Red Bull 1-2 in opening practice which was red-flagged midway through as Logan Sargeant crashed heavily, which ruled him out of FP2 as his Williams car was repaired.But the American driver missed relatively little running as damp conditions meant no representative running in the…

Max Verstappen set the pace for Red Bull in FP1, which was the only representative session on Friday, as he posted a time of 1m30.056s in his RB20.

Verstappen was fastest in Free Practice 1, lapping in 1m30.056s, while FP2 was blighted by rain showers. That was topped by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, with a quickest time of 1m34.725s.

Sainz beat Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris at the Albert Park Circuit on Sunday after polesitter Max Verstappen retired early on with mechanical troubles.

Sainz beat Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris at the Albert Park Circuit on Sunday after polesitter Max Verstappen retired early on with mechanical troubles.

Verstappen will start ahead of Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez after the one-hour qualifying session, which was split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3. 

Only moments before, Verstappen had pipped Carlos Sainz by 0.057s as the Ferrari driver spent much of the hour on top owing to his performance on the medium tyre earlier on in the session.