Welcome at RacingNews365

Become part of the largest racing community in the United Kingdom. Create your free account now!

  • Share your thoughts and opinions about F1
  • Win fantastic prizes
  • Get access to our premium content
  • Take advantage of more exclusive benefits
Sign in
2026 F1 Chinese Grand Prix

Kimi Antonelli explains key to landing historic F1 pole position

Kimi Antonelli broke the record to become the youngest pole-sitter in F1 world championship history!

Antonelli Australia podium
Article
To news overview © XPBimages

Kimi Antonelli has explained that the key to his historic pole position at the Chinese GP was "staying calm" after the drama around team-mate George Russell.

Already holding provisional pole position, Antonelli shaved his time to a 1:32.064, which stood as the benchmark, with Russell the last to set a time. 

This was Russell's only lap of Q3 following a scare in the early stages, but he fell 0.222s short of Antonelli's time, which handed the Italian the record. 

Antonelli, as of March 14th, is 19 years, 6 months, 18 days old, eclipsing Vettel's record of 21 years, 2 months, 11 days from the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.

Antonelli is also the first Italian to take a world championship grand prix since Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix for Force India, and it is the 49th overall for an Italian driver.

"Yeah, it was a pretty clean session, so I am really happy," Antonelli explained.

"George had an issue, so it would have been cool to see him with two [runs], but it was a really good session. 

"It was clean, and there were no mistakes, so I am looking forward to the race.

"I saw George had the issue, but I just tried to keep my focus, stay calm and deliver a good lap, which I did at the end."

Also interesting:

Get the latest F1 news from RacingNews365 directly in your Google feed! Click on the link below and you’ll see your favourite F1 website appearing even more often. That way, you’ll never miss any news, analyses, interviews, or exclusives.

Follow RacingNews365 on Google

Join the conversation!

Never miss a thing from the Formula 1 season! Add the 2026 F1 schedule to your calendar at the touch of a button. Subscribe below and put the dates and times of every race directly on your PC or smartphone, so you don't miss a second from the new season.

Download the F1 calendar Download the F1 calendar

A variant with just the race and qualifying is also available.
Click here to download it..

F1 calendar 2026
Race Date
can Canadian GP 24 May 2026
mco Monaco GP 07 Jun 2026
esp Barcelona GP 14 Jun 2026
aut Austrian GP 28 Jun 2026
gbr British GP 05 Jul 2026
bel Belgian GP 19 Jul 2026
Full calendar
x
LIVE Nurburgring 24 Hours with Max Verstappen - Top Qualifying