Lewis Hamilton Says He's 'Gobsmacked' By Shock Pole For Shanghai Sprint Race

Everyone was surprised to see Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton (two weeks into the season and this still feels weird) topping the timesheet in sprint qualifying, but perhaps no one was as surprised as Hamilton himself.

Sir Lewis' debut in Rosso Corsa for the winningest team in F1 history while far from a trainwreck, was a little disappointing.

He and Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc were only able to qualify on the fourth row of the grid with Leclerc in P7 and Hamilton in P8 and neither was able to improve in the Grand Prix with Leclerc finishing P8 while Hamilton grabbed the last available point in P10.

But hey, it's a new week and the circuit in Shanghai is very different from the one in Melbourne and already the Hamilton era at Ferrari is already starting to look a bit more like we thought it would.

In the lone practice session of the weekend, Leclerc came in P2 behind only McLaren's Lando Norris, while Hamilton's best lap earned him a respectable P4.

What a difference a week made for Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari. (Photo by Mark Sutton - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

But it was in qualifying Friday night's sprint race (Saturday in China, but late Friday here in the States) Hamilton stunned by besting his old 2021 title rival Max Verstappen of Red Bull by around two-hundredths of a second.

Sure, there's still plenty of work to do to score some points in the sprint and then qualify again for the Grand Prix on Sunday, but what a start, and even Hamilton himself was kind of shocked.

"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. 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."

Well, if you're the rest of the Formula 1 field, the last thing you want to see is a Lewis Hamilton who realizes he may have a car capable of fighting for a win.

It should be an interesting weekend for sure if the Ferraris end up battling for the win with Verstappen and the McLarens.