Andrea Kimi Antonelli has made history by becoming the youngest ever driver to take pole position for a grand prix.
But his prize will be worth little if he repeats the poor starts he made in the two races so far this year.
Antonelli started the Australian Grand Prix and today’s sprint race in Shanghai from the front row of the grid. But on both occasions he struggled to get his Mercedes off the line.
In Australia, Antonelli briefly had wheelspin as he dropped from second place to seventh. “I didn’t have power out of the last corner,” he explained, “the car was not responding to any inputs and it was very stressful, and then the start was poor, very poor.”
He moved away slowly again in today’s sprint race, leading to a collision with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar at turn six. Antonelli finished the first lap in eighth place.
“First of all [I need to] have a good start because I haven’t had a good one so far,” Antonelli admitted after taking pole position for the grand prix.
He will line up alongside team mate George Russell. The two Ferraris, which have made consistently strong starts so far this year, will line up immediately behind them. In the sprint race, Lewis Hamilton gained one place off the line then passed Russell further around the first lap, while Charles Leclerc moved up three places to third.
“They certainly look very strong, especially on cold tyres they look like they’ve got good pace,” Antonelli observed. “But of course also the start is a very strong point of theirs. So I’m just going to try to have a clean start and then we’ll see from there.”
Antonelli previously set pole position for the sprint race in Miami last year. However he tangled with Oscar Piastri at the first corner and fell to fourth place.
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2026 Chinese Grand Prix
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