Russell led every phase of the session at the Shanghai circuit to take his first career sprint pole in a time of one minute, 31.520 seconds. Antonelli was 0.289 slower.
McLaren's Lando Norris was third fastest but the Briton could move up to the front row with Antonelli under investigation and facing a possible grid drop for allegedly impeding the reigning world champion in the second phase.
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said, however, that Norris had not been on course for a fast time anyway on that lap.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, who started the 100km race on pole in China last year, was fourth fastest ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
The race on Saturday brings eight points to the winner with the top eight scoring. The main grand prix is on Sunday.
Mercedes car 'a real joy to drive'
"The car has been feeling amazing," said Russell, winner of the Australian season-opener last weekend. "We knew after Melbourne we had a really good car, the engine is performing really well, and today it was a real joy to drive.
"It felt really quick and that was pretty cool, very different to Melbourne."
Russell was the third successive British sprint pole-sitter in Shanghai after Norris in 2024 and Hamilton in 2025.
He had also been fastest in the day's sole practice session, ahead of Antonelli, with Mercedes comfortably ahead of the rest.
Pierre Gasly was seventh fastest for Renault-owned Alpine but under investigation for apparently impeding Red Bull's four-times world champion Max Verstappen, who ended up eighth.
Haas's Oliver Bearman took the ninth slot on the grid and Verstappen's new teammate Isack Hadjar completed the top 10 but a massive 2.2 seconds off Russell's pace.
Norris said he was happy with his lap.
"P3 is as good as we can do for the time being," he said.
"I'm actually pretty happy to beat both the Ferraris today because they seemed pretty good the whole day. So I'm satisfied. Good position for tomorrow."
Leclerc said Mercedes were still a step ahead but Ferrari, who removed their so-called 'Macarena' rear wing for the session due to reliability concerns, should have been stronger.
"In qualifying for some reason the Mercedes power unit finds a lot of lap time," said the Monegasque.
"We don't quite find that amount of lap time just yet in qualifying but in the race we are closer so I'm hopeful we can come back tomorrow."
Hamilton said the engineers had done a fantastic job to get the car ready after he spun off in a tricky practice session.
"The car generally felt great. I think it is on the straights, it's a lot of time to be losing so we have a lot of work to do, we really have to push so hard to improve on power."
Further back, Audi continued to perform well with Nico Hulkenberg qualifying 11th and Gabriel Bortoleto 14th.
Newcomers Cadillac filled the bottom two positions, with Mexican Sergio Perez unable to take part in the session due to a fuel system issue.
Troubled Aston Martin, struggling with their new Honda power unit, had Fernando Alonso 19th and Lance Stroll 20th. Williams, whose car has been slowed by excess weight, had Carlos Sainz 17th and Alex Albon 18th.