Lando Norris steals Chinese Grand Prix sprint pole from Lewis Hamilton in dramatic qualifying

It led to more questions going into qualifying into exactly where each team was for their race pace, but rain was forecast for the end of the session to create even more chaos.

Hamilton managed to squeeze into the top 10 as the rain came down at the end of the second qualifying session, which saw George Russell drop out.

There was also big cheers from the Chinese crowd as home favourite Zhou Guanyu similarly made it through to SQ3.

The change in weather made it wide open for everyone on the grid to potentially take pole and the tricky conditions were clear for all to see with Max Verstappen going off the track multiple times.

Charles Leclerc hit the barrier while others spun around, but Hamilton was the first to put together a proper lap and took provisional pole.

That didn't seem to last long as Norris then crossed the line more than a second faster than his compatriot.

But the lap was quickly deleted with the session ending and Hamilton on top of the timesheet.

However, confusion ensued as Norris had his lap time reinstated by race control to give the McLaren driver pole position.

Norris will now start Saturday's Sprint ahead of Hamilton on the front row with Fernando Alonso on the second row with Verstappen.

"I'm extremely happy. Big thanks to the whole team. It was tricky," Norris said.

"You are always nervous going into a Qualifying like this, especially when you almost know it's going to rain.

"The conditions, you just have to risk a lot and push to build tyre temperature.

"I was quick but just kept catching the Ferraris, so had to keep backing off so I didn't do the first two laps well but I did a good final one.

"I'm happy. Sad it's not for a proper Qualifying, but it's good enough."

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But Norris has no idea whether his pace in the wet will translate to race pace in Saturday's sprint.

He said when asked about his chances of winning the sprint: "Not a clue. We did some work this morning and consecutive laps to try and understand.

"It depends what the weather is like. If it's like this, then the chances are relatively decent but the race is very different to Qualifying.

"The pace is good, whether it's wet or dry, so we are in a decent position. The team did a good job, the car feels good and so do I."