Lewis Hamilton Breaks Sebastian Vettel’s 7-Year-Old Record With Pole Lap in Shanghai

Lewis Hamilton is on cloud nine after he clinched his maiden pole position for Ferrari in only his second race weekend for the team. He registered a storming lap of 1:30.849 to take sprint pole, only two-hundredths of a second faster than his nearest rival — Max Verstappen — but enough to set a new lap record around the Shanghai International Circuit.

Sebastian Vettel previously held the qualifying lap record in Shanghai after he set a 1:31.095 in Q3 in 2018. With all the top four drivers in SQ3 beating the German’s record from 2018, it will not come as a surprise if Hamilton’s record is broken again during Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday.

Nonetheless, neither Hamilton nor Ferrari will care as this is a huge step forward for them after the kind of disastrous weekend they had in Australia last week. The Briton managed only a P10 finish at Albert Park last weekend, two places behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.

On the back of his poor outing in Melbourne, Hamilton revealed in his post-qualifying interview in Shanghai that he could never imagine claiming pole just five days later.

“I didn’t expect that result but so happy and so proud. The last race was a disaster for us,” he said per Sky Sports. “We knew there was more performance in the car. It came alive from lap one”.

Hamilton has now the record with a 1:30.849 https://t.co/8QoKxKqLxa pic.twitter.com/I8oq0yb29T

— Holiness (@F1BigData) March 21, 2025

With Leclerc also qualifying in P4 and being within two-tenths of his teammate, it puts Ferrari in a good position heading into the rest of the weekend.

If Hamilton can now manage to convert his sprint pole into a win on Saturday, it will definitely send the fans gathered at the Shanghai International Circuit into raptures. And of course, the seven-time world champion would want to make this a ‘streak’ of good results by clinching the Grand Prix win on Sunday.

Fortunately, Hamilton has an impeccable record in Shanghai, having won the most number of Grands Prix (6). Plus, after beating Vettel‘s qualifying lap record, the #44 driver could also aim at breaking Michael Schumacher’s age-old race lap record of 1:32.238, which he set during the inaugural Chinese GP in 2004.

Regardless of Hamilton winning in China, Ferrari would want to have an improved showing this weekend to at least get both their drivers in the top five or get a double podium. With no rain forecast for Saturday or Sunday, the Italian team will hope that they make amends for their Melbourne performance.