Chinese Sprint Qualifying, Audi 15 thousandths from SQ3
Audi started the weekend in China with a very solid Friday, confirming the good things that emerged in Melbourne. In the Sprint Qualifying held at the Shanghai circuit, Nico Hülkenberg narrowly missed out on SQ3: the German was eliminated by Isack Hadjar by just 15 thousandths. The German’s result reaffirms the quality of the R26 project and the great work completed in Neuburg despite the difficulties of creating a “home-made” power unit for the first time.
Read more 2026 Chinese GP: Sprint Qualifying report
Hülkenberg’s words
“It’s a shame to have missed SQ3 by such a small margin, but overall P11 is still a solid result. In SQ2 I lost radio contact with the team, so I had to manage part of the lap on my own, which complicated things“, was the German’s comment.
“Apart from that, the feeling with the car has been good since this morning. We will probably be in the midfield fight again, and it’s encouraging. The situation on track is very tight, we will treasure what we learned today and aim to improve tomorrow“.
Bortoleto’s words
“It was a bit of a complicated Friday for us. We encountered some problems during free practice, which recurred during Sprint Qualifying and put us in difficulty“, added Bortoleto, 14th on the grid. “Obviously, it’s a different type of track from those we’ve faced so far, we’re discovering once again how our car behaves. Looking at the Sprint, let’s see what we can achieve. Obviously it’s a fairly short race, after which we’ll make sure to solve whatever problem there is, so as to arrive at qualifying in a better position“.
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