FACTS AND STATS: Verstappen matches Hakkinen by grabbing opening poles at five weekends

Max Verstappen followed up his Sprint victory with pole for the Grand Prix, capping a dream day for the Dutchman. He is sharing the front row with his team mate tomorrow, while Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris are the two on the second row tasked with chasing down those Bulls. Here are all the best facts and stats from a frantic qualifying in Shanghai…

• Verstappen takes Red Bull’s 100th pole, at the same circuit where they scored their first pole.

• The Dutchman is the first driver in the 21st century to take the first five poles in a season, Mika Hakkinen the last to do so in 1999.

• Verstappen has taken pole at 21 different circuits, surpassing both Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell to move fourth in the all-time list.

READ MORE: Verstappen seals pole position for Chinese Grand Prix as he heads Perez and Alonso

• Perez grabbed second, to give Red Bull back-to-back front row lockouts, only their fifth 1-2 of the hybrid era despite coming within 0.048s of being knocked out in Q1.

• The Mexican has never previously started in the top six in Shanghai.

• Alonso grabbed third, his highest start in China since 2013 and his best start of the season so far.

• Norris was fourth, as he out-qualified his team mate for the third consecutive race.

• Oscar Piastri starts on the third row for the fourth straight race.

• Charles Leclerc grabbed P6, having only started on the even side of the track this year as he out-qualified his team mate by just 0.008s.

• George Russell was eighth, meaning Mercedes don’t have a top-six start in any of the last four Grands Prix.

HIGHLIGHTS: Watch the Sprint drama as Verstappen takes victory ahead of Hamilton and Perez in Shanghai

• Nico Hulkenberg made it to Q3 for the second time this season.

• Valtteri Bottas was 10th, as he made a first Q3 appearance of the year to follow his SQ3 performance yesterday.

• Lance Stroll was quickest in practice, but qualified 11th. The Canadian has only reached Q3 twice in the first five races this year.

• Daniel Ricciardo hadn’t beaten his team mate over one lap coming into China, but out-qualified Yuki Tsunoda in both Sprint and the Grand Prix qualifying.

• Esteban Ocon was 13th, beating his team mate in qualifying for the fifth time this season.

• Alex Albon has made it to Q2 at every race this season, but has yet to make Q3.

• Pierre Gasly made it to Q2 for the first time this season.

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• Neither Zhou Guanyu nor Logan Sargeant have made it out of Q1 yet this year.

• Kevin Magnussen suffered back-to-back Q1 eliminations in Japan and China.

• Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 for the first time since Jeddah 2022, having qualified on the front row for the Sprint this weekend.

• Tsunoda’s P19 followed three consecutive Q3 appearances.