McLaren driver Lando Norris fearlessly completed an “all or nothing” lap in wet and wild conditions on Friday to cost Lewis Hamilton the pole of the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race Bit. When Norris’s 1 minute, 57.940 second lap on medium wet tyres was canceled for exceeding track limits, Hamilton thought he had secured pole position in Shanghai in his Mercedes, but it was dramatic a minute later. The land was restored. Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin showed his experience and intelligence to finish third in treacherous conditions, while championship leader Max Verstappen finished fourth.

It was Norris’ second career sprint pole position.

“It’s tricky, you always get nervous going into a game like this,” the Englishman said.

“You just have to take a lot of risks, raise and raise the tire temperatures and so on.

“You only get three laps. I gave up on the first two laps, so it was all or nothing.”

Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez was sixth, split between Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, who survived a big spin.

“It’s like driving on ice,” said Verstappen, whose final lap time was deleted after running on gravel outside the final corner.

“That’s why I thought we should have done what we did in qualifying, it didn’t really work for me in the wet but not in the dry.”

Hamilton has endured a poor start to 2024 but is clearly looking forward to starting on the front row.

“So happy, I got excited as soon as I saw the rain. We weren’t fast enough in the dry conditions.”

Alonso also thanked the belated rain. “We’re not very competitive in dry conditions,” he said.

“In the wet it was difficult to judge the grip and risk level we wanted to apply, but in the end I was happy.”

Sainz, who was fifth, said the rain and cool conditions made it difficult to warm up his medium tyres.

“We didn’t manage to get the tires on so we couldn’t push,” said the Spaniard, the only driver besides Verstappen to win a race this season.

Formula One returns to China for the first time since Hamilton’s victory in 2019.

Hometown Heroes Week

Huge cheers erupted at the Shanghai International Circuit when hometown hero Zhou Guanyu broke into the third round of qualifying.

He will start the Saturday morning sprint for Sauber from the 10th.

The 24-year-old Zhou Enlai was promoted to F1 driver in 2022, but due to the epidemic, he had to wait until the third season to make his first home appearance.

Zhou has yet to earn championship points for 2024, but he gave himself a prime opportunity with a near-perfect qualifying performance.

Every lap of his bright green Sauber was met with loud cheers from the stands across the pit lane as his results appeared on the scoreboard.

“We will give everything,” Zhou said. “I’m happy with the first day and happy to have everyone here.

“The pressure before the weekend is so intense, just like I felt when I made my debut.”

Verstappen had won three of the four grands prix this season until rain came towards the end of the second race and he once again looked fastest.

The three-time world champion will engage in an entertaining 19-lap sprint battle on Saturday morning as he attempts to overtake Alonso, Hamilton and Norris.

“We have to try to get the best start possible,” Verstappen said.

“Then I think it will be quite a while to use one set of tires in the sprint.”

Hamilton said his fate depended on the weather gods.

“It really depends on what the conditions are like,” said the seven-time world champion, who has won a record six grands prix in Shanghai.

“If they do what they just did, we have a chance of getting there.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)