SHANGHAI — Kimi Antonelli became the youngest driver in Formula 1 history to take a Grand Prix pole position in China.
Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate George Russell claimed second on the grid after an earlier car issue hampered him in Q3.
Antonelli beat the previous record set by Sebastian Vettel at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, with the 19-year-old set to start at the very front for Sunday’s 56-lap race.
The Italian out-qualified Russell by 0.222 seconds after posting a one minute and 32.064 seconds with his final effort.
“I think the start is going to be interesting,” the teenager explained. “I’m going to try not to overcomplicate things, just going to try to have a clean start and the pace is good.
“Just need to also manage the tyres the best way possible because graining could be quite severe tomorrow, so just going to try to stay on top of that. But the main thing is a clean start and then we’ll see from there.”
Russell, who won Saturday’s Sprint, was only able to set one flying lap in the final segment of Qualifying having suffered a car issue which brought him to a halt on track briefly.
The Briton recovered back to the pits stuck in first gear, and with the problem rectified, set a single lap at the end of proceedings.
Ferrari locked-out the second row, Lewis Hamilton finishing fractionally ahead of Charles Leclerc, as Oscar Piastri headed McLaren teammate and reigning champion Lando Norris.
