If you were writing scripts for the new Formula 1 season, there’s a front row you probably would have wanted to put together early in the year: Lewis Hamilton on pole ahead of Max Verstappen.

And it might only be for a Sprint race, but that is the prospect that lies ahead at the Chinese Grand Prix.

What’s so tantalizing is the fact that we’re seeing early fluctuations in form for all teams. McLaren looked comfortably quickest throughout Friday until it mattered at the end of SQ3, and then couldn’t get a car on the front row. Oscar Piastri was close, and Lando Norris could have been there if he finished his lap cleanly, but the peakiness of the car is one reason he failed to do so.

So, taking every opportunity to get points on the board in this early stage of the year when the McLaren appears to have an advantage is going to be crucial — and both Hamilton and Verstappen have a chance of doing so on Saturday morning.

What’s more, they also could be helped by the other acting as a bit of a rear gunner. Neither will want to play that role, but both will believe they have a quick enough car to win the Sprint race if they are running in the lead. If they hold position off the line, then Verstappen is not going to be an easy pass for either Piastri or Norris. Similarly, Hamilton won’t just wave the McLarens through, either.

Yet you don’t need to go back very far to get the feeling that this wasn’t on the cards.

“I’m just a bit gobsmacked, honestly — I’m a bit taken back by it,” Hamilton said. “I didn’t know when we would get to this position after last weekend; it was a difficult start to the week. I came here with aggression and wanting to really get the car into a great place, and I started out straight away with a better feeling in the car.

“I just I can’t believe that we’re at the front end ahead of a McLaren, which has been so fast through throughout winter testing, and obviously in the last race and even today. But I’m really grateful just to be up there fighting with these great drivers and to be so close to these other teams.”

Ferrari did not get its setup right in Australia and was never truly competitive in the sessions that mattered at Albert Park. McLaren said it was surprised, and so did Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. But the evidence was of a messy and disorganized team that did not tally with the more recent Ferrari standards.

Strategy calls didn’t pay off in the changing conditions, and just five points were taken from Sunday’s race. The fallout was a focus on the long road being faced by Hamilton and the team to really jell, especially if other aspects were not going to be operating at 100%.

But while Norris arrived in China telling people to “calm down” about the fast start McLaren has made, so too Hamilton was delivering a similar message against being too harsh on Ferrari so far. For one, his radio exchanges with race engineer Riccardo Adami were being used to highlight how much work still needed doing, yet the 40-year-old felt it unfairly overlooked how well they had worked together in such a short space of time.

It’s also true that Hamilton’s comments were in contrast to how some other drivers have treated race engineers in the past — as he was pointedly being very polite in his feedback and requests — but the fact they were being picked up on were not wrong.

That said, Hamilton himself admitted after taking Sprint pole that the previous race had been “a disaster” and, not that the radio messages should be used critically, but they do provide a clear example of the sort of challenges that Hamilton himself has been warning about so far this year. There’s plenty of experience that needs to be gained from both sides about how to get the best out of each other, and most of that will play out in the public domain.

Hamilton never completed a race simulation in pre-season testing, for example, and then his first such running in Australia was in extremely tricky conditions that caught out so many drivers and teams. It was extremely easy to make mistakes both behind the wheel and from the pit wall.

The additional focus on that aspect could well be because that is where Hamilton is expected to be strongest. Ask any driver or former driver in the paddock and they will talk up the pace potential that Charles Leclerc has over one lap, and more often than not there were predictions that Hamilton would struggle to match his teammate in qualifying but be a bigger threat in races.

So for Hamilton and Ferrari to respond to the difficulties in Australia within just five days, put that learning into practice over a solitary hour of FP1 in Shanghai and then deliver Sprint pole — again when it was clearly not easy to prepare the tires and work out what the right approach was — is a major surprise.

Support for Lewis Hamilton was loud and proud at Shanghai International Circuit on Friday. Kym Illman/Getty Images

I don’t mind admitting that I would have predicted it would be rare that Hamilton would pick up pole positions this season, not only because I didn’t see Ferrari having the outright fastest car, but also because of Leclerc’s ability on the occasions the car would be good enough. For him to set the pace in only his second qualifying session was not on my bingo card.

This could be a short-lived high, depending on how the Sprint pans out and with another qualifying session to follow on Saturday afternoon that will provide an opportunity for McLaren in particular to learn from its errors. But after catching us by surprise today, don’t rule out the seven-time world champion making further gains, either.

“Wow, holy crap, my first [with Ferrari],” he said. “Even though it’s not the main pole, that gives me real inspiration to go into tomorrow to find more performance and see if we can compete again.”

It’s certainly a glimpse of the potential that Hamilton has at Ferrari, and it’s that first piece of evidence that will just make you believe that the partnership could deliver something thrilling.

Catch the official trailer for “F1,” the upcoming feature film from Apple Original Films and the filmmakers from “Top Gun: Maverick” starring Brad Pitt and directed by Joseph Kosinski. The film, which is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Kosinski, seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Chad Oman, opens in theaters this summer. As you enjoy this preview, keep your eyes peeled for a cameo appearance by RACER about 10 seconds in!

Lando Norris says McLaren’s failure to secure a spot on the front row in Sprint qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix was the result of its car being too difficult to drive in windy conditions.

Relatively high winds during Friday’s running had an impact on how challenging it was for drivers to be consistent, as they dealt with a crosswind on the long back straight and a headwind into Turn 1. McLaren had delivered a number of laps that marked it out as the team to beat at different stages of FP1 and Sprint qualifying, but in SQ3 Oscar Piastri could only set the third-fastest time and Norris ended up sixth after running wide at the Turn 14 hairpin.

“I made a mistake — I locked up in the last corner,” Norris said. “Just not quick enough, simply. It’s just our difficulties that we’ve been struggling with showed a lot more today. Nothing more than that, honestly — too many mistakes, but just too difficult of a car to drive.

“Throughout the day we’ve been struggling a bit with the front locking and struggling a lot in the last corner with all the tailwind. So a lot more aligned with Bahrain, say. It’s just a lot windier and when the wind’s blowing, we struggle a lot more.”

As for his errors, Norris put them down to him overcompensating for the car’s shortcomings.

“I think both myself and Oscar struggled more, clearly me more than him,” he said. “So, just pushing a bit hard to try and make up for not quite being quick enough.”

Based on the lap times the two McLaren drivers delivered in practice and earlier in qualifying, Norris believes improvements on Saturday are more likely to come from him himself rather than making further setup changes.

“That’s more me rather than the car,” he said. “I can’t make the car perfect, but no, this was me just trying to push a bit too much. I just need to back off a little bit and not try to push too much. I think the car’s still good and in a good window — maybe not good enough for pole, but we can definitely go forward.”

Teammate Piastri agreed with Norris’ assessment, but he also felt the team did not take the right strategic approach to its tire usage at the end of Friday’s Sprint qualifying session.

“SQ1 and SQ2 felt good and then SQ3 we tried something a bit different and went out much earlier and tried two laps, which I’m not sure was the best thing in the end,” Piastri said. “I think it’s something we need to have a look at. But I think the pace in the car is still very strong and I’m still confident to fight from third tomorrow.

“It’s been difficult. I think with the track surface, it’s got a lot of grip, but it’s very peaky and I think it’s been pretty tough all day to just keep on top of the car.

“I honestly think we did a good job of trying to tame it for Sprint qualifying, just maybe got the run plan a bit wrong. It’s been an interesting challenge. The group’s been a lot better than last season, which is nice, but I think there’s some things we can do better tomorrow.”

Max Verstappen was delighted to be starting second in the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix despite missing out to Lewis Hamilton for pole by just 0.018s, because he doesn’t believe Red Bull should be on the front row.

Hamilton took Sprint pole at the start of just his second race weekend for Ferrari, with Verstappen’s final lap seeing the defending champion fall just short of beating his former rival. Both drivers were surprised to be ahead of the McLarens based on the lap times from earlier on Friday, and Verstappen says the starting position is far beyond his expectations ahead of the session.

“I am very happy,” Verstappen said. “I do think that in the first practice we were quite a bit off, so I am very happy to be on the front row honestly. The lap was very good; it’s always very tough when you go from a medium to a soft to nail the lap with no references. Of course, when you look at it, it was 0.018s or something off pole, but I don’t think we should even have been on the front row anyway. So I’m quite happy to be second.”

Verstappen says his Red Bull is not facing significant handling issues, but more lacking overall performance compared to the likes of McLaren, and so the result will be a boost as it looks to limit the damage in the championship standings at this early stage.

“Nothing dramatic, because I don’t think the balance is massively off, just too slow I would say. But this is good for us — it’s a little motivation boost as well for everyone that we keep nailing the laps and we keep maximizing everything that we’ve got,” he said. “You need to do that as well at the same time when you are maybe struggling a bit more for pace.”

With Oscar Piastri lining up third and Lando Norris sixth, Verstappen expects the McLaren pair to offer a serious threat in the Sprint but he hopes the performance difference is small enough that he can try and fight for victory.

“I think they looked very fast up until that last run, so I think it will be very hard to keep them behind,” he admitted. “But hopefully it will be fun; hopefully we are all… I wouldn’t say close but at least that we can race a bit, that would be nice for me.”

Lewis Hamilton swept to Sprint pole with a new track record on just his second weekend as a Ferrari driver at the Chinese Grand Prix.

McLaren had started Sprint qualifying as the comfortable favorite after Lando Norris topped the sole practice session by almost half a second, but the team’s challenge collapsed at the final hurdle.

Oscar Piastri took provisional pole with his first lap but couldn’t improve with his second, leaving him third, while Norris made mistakes on both his flying laps to end up sixth in the order. They left the door wide open to Hamilton, who pieced together a purple middle sector to set a new track record of 1m30.849s and take sprint pole.

“I didn’t expect that result, but I’m so, so happy and so proud,” he said. “Obviously the last race was a disaster for us, and clearly we knew there as more performance in the car, we just weren’t able to extract it.

“The car really came alive from lap one. We made some great changes. The team did a fantastic job through the break to get the car ready. I’m a bit in shock. I can’t believe we’ve actually got a pole in the Sprint.”

But Hamilton, a six-time pole-getter and race winner at the Chinese Grand Prix, cautioned that he still expected McLaren to be the team to beat over the balance of the weekend, noting that he’s still adjusting to his new team.

McLaren’s underperformance also allowed Max Verstappen to sneak onto the front row with a lap after the checkered flag, the Dutchman falling short by just 0.018s.

Piastri clung to third, the Australian missing out on pole by only 0.08s courtesy of his first flying lap. Charles Leclerc was 0.208s slower than his pole-winning teammate.

Fifth was the best Mercedes could manage, with George Russell 0.32s off the pace but still faster than Australian Grand Prix winner Norris in sixth.

Norris made two critical mistakes in SQ3 that cost him a shot at pole, both in the final sector. His first lap was ruined by a big slide through Turn 13 leading onto the back straight, costing him almost 0.4s.

His second lap was looking good enough to put him in the mix until he locked up into the Turn 14 hairpin, forcing him to abandon the lap. It left him an unrepresentative 0.544s off pole.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli was seventh for Mercedes ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon and Lance Stroll.

Fernando Alonso was knocked out of SQ2 by 0.021, setting himself up in 11th ahead of Haas rookie Oliver Bearman, the Englishman enjoying a markedly better second weekend as a full-time grand prix driver.

Carlos Sainz was complaining of poor balance on his way to a disappointed 13th ahead of Kick Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto.

Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar will line up 15th after scotching his final lap with a washout at Turn 1-2. He was subsequently dispatched to give teammate Yuki Tsunoda a big slipstream down the back straight, helping the Japanese ace squeak into SQ3 by just 0.021s.

Alpine teammates Jack Doohan and Pierre Gasly qualified 16th and 17th after embarking on their final flying laps earlier than most of the field. On an evolving circuit, Doohan missed out on a Q2 berth by just 0.036s. Gasly was bested by 0.065s.

Esteban Ocon was knocked out in 18th for Haas ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, both drivers beaten by their younger teammates into SQ2.

Liam Lawson put his Red Bull Racing car last on the grid after lapping 0.813s slower than SQ3-bound teammate Verstappen.

“I honestly could not get the tires down,” the Kiwi said apologetically over team radio after a lap illustrative of a driver lacking confidence in the car.