China, Qual.: Hamilton powers to third pole of season in Shanghai

Lewis Hamilton took his third pole position in a row ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg, as Mercedes completed a dominant front-row lock out in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Hamilton finished four tenths of a second clear of team-mate Nico Rosberg but almost a full second ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who finished third.

Q1 saw Vettel go quickest, with the Ferrari driver setting a time of 1:37.502. Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was second fastest ahead of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, with Romain Grosjean a surprise fourth.

Practice-session pacesetter Hamilton was fifth fastest, with team-mate Nico Rosberg eighth. However, the duo eased through to Q2 without using the soft tyre, whereas Vettel and Raikkonen began on mediums before to the option tyre to set their best times.

At the other end of the order, the Manor cars of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi were predictably eliminated in 19th and 20th respectively. Next out were McLarens of Jenson Button (P17) and Fernando Alonso (P18), while Nico Hulkenberg’s session also came to an end as he finished in 16th place.

It was a close-fought affair, with just half a second covering Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado in 11th place and the last man through, Daniil Kvyat, in P15.

The battle to qualify for Q3 was similarly tight. At the start of the session Red Bull Racing’s Kvyat was told that the cut-off point would likely be at around 1m 38s and so it proved, with Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson claiming P10 with a time just a tenth slower than that.

Kvyat, though, couldn’t better that benchmark and with the Russian apparently suffering car problems he was only able to post a time of 1:38.209, which earned him 12th place behind Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado. Also dumped out were the twin Toro Rossos of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz – in P13 and P14 respectively – and the Force India of Sergio Perez in 15th place.

At the top of the Q2 order, normal service was resumed with Hamilton quickest with a lap of 1:36.423. That put him three tenths of a second ahead of Rosberg. The two-by-two look was added to by Vettel finishing third ahead of Raikkonen and Massa heading Bottas in fifth and sixth places.

Hamilton maintained his position at the top of the order after the first runs in Q3. The Briton set and opening run lap time of 1:35.782 to head Rosberg by almost two tenths of a second. Behind them Massa delivered a good opening lap to claim third, though his time was almost 1.6s adrift of that set by Hamilton. Behind him came Vettel, Bottas, Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

In the final runs, Bottas made the first move, stealing third place behind the Mercedes with a time of 1:37.143. That was quickly eclipsed, however, by his team-mate Massa. The Brazilian again put in a good lap to beat Bottas by just under two tenths of a second and hand Williams a potential row two lock-out.

Sebastian Vettel was just beginning the final sector of his last hot lap, however, and when the German crossed the line he had put his Ferrari in third place, almost three tenths clear of Massa but tellingly, almost a full second down on Hamilton.

Behind the Williams cars, Raikkonen took sixth place, his final run being marred by a mistake at turn 10. Ricciardo gave Red Bull Racing a hope of good points with seventh ahead of Grosjean and the final top 10 positions were taken by Sauber’s Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson.