Heading into Friday’s F1 Sprint qualifying session at the Chinese Grand Prix, Lando Norris was the favorite. And with good reason. Norris began the year with a strong performance in the Australian Grand Prix where he claimed pole position,

Lando Norris suffered a nightmare opening lap, as Lewis Hamilton managed to maintain his lead during the early stages of the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race. Championship leader Norris tumbled down the order into ninth, outside of the point-scoring positions for a sprint race.

The Australian, a two-time race winner who has had sprint poles before, lapped in one minute, 30.641 seconds and was joined on the front row for Sunday's start by George Russell after the Mercedes driver put in a storming final effort of 1:30.723.