Red Bull's Max Verstappen claimed P3 in the Chinese Sprint Race, following that up by qualifying P4 ahead of tomorrow's Grand Prix.
The Dutchman started the race on the front row, alongside pole setter Lewis Hamilton, and maintained his position for the majority of the Sprint Race.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri lined up P3 and kept in the hunt behind the four-time World Champion.
Eventually, the Australian managed to get past Verstappen at Turn 14 on Lap 15 of the race, consigning him to P3 as chasers George Russell and Charles Leclerc could not catch him.
With six points in the bag, and current championship leader Lando Norris dropping to P8, Verstappen now sits just two points back in the Drivers' Standings.
It was also a positive result for teammate Liam Lawson, who had a torrid time in qualifying yesterday.
Despite finishing outside of the points, Lawson managed to climb the grid from P20 up to P14 in an impressive recovery drive.
The feature race is what truly matters, however, and all eyes quickly turned to qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.
For Lawson, however, qualifying did not last long as he was once again knocked out in Q1, 1.191 seconds behind the lead, and will like up right at the back of the grid as he did for the Sprint.
Sister team drivers Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda continued to outperform the young New Zealander, qualifying P7 and P9 respectively.
Speaking after his Q1 exit, Lawson said: "It's just really tough, honestly. The window's really small, that's known, but it's not an excuse."
"I've got to get a handle on it. It was a messy session and had we not dealt with traffic it might have been okay but, to be honest, it's not good enough to be having those issues and that's the reason we get knocked out."
"We should be fast enough on our first lap, it shouldn't be an issue."
When asked what he needed to do to get on top of the issues, Lawson commented: "I think it's just time. Unfortunately, I don't really have time but it's just one of those things."
"To drive a Formula One car it takes 100% confidence in what you're doing and it's not that I don't feel confident, but the window's so small that right now I just seem to miss it."
Verstappen, meanwhile, continued to outperform his RB21 and put himself on the second row with a P4 qualifying position, sitting one place back from championship leader Norris.
The 27-year-old finished 0.174 seconds behind pole sitter Oscar Piastri, which should give him some optimism that he can make a challenge for another podium finish in the feature race, although he sounded fairly pessimistic in the post-qualifying interviews.
When describing his qualifying session, Verstappen commented: "Difficult. It's the same problem as yesterday. Just not the grip we want, and the car is very easy to lose time with through certain corners."
"Really weird grip, hard to stay consistent."
When asked about his prospects in tomorrow's race, he said: "Not very special. I don't think we can challenge them. I don't think we can look forward."
