Lewis Hamilton dominated qualifying in Shanghai to go unchallenged for pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix, his fourth at the circuit.
The Briton led all three sessions as he made the best of the wet conditions, ultimately to go six-tenths quicker than Daniel Ricciardo in second.
Ricciardo saved his best until Q3 to jump ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel in third by almost half a second, putting him 3-1 in the Red Bull team-mate battle.
Nico Rosberg couldn’t match his Mercedes team-mate and looked under pressure as he ran wide on his second flying lap, chose to back-off for another, but span at the final turn as he once again pushed and exceeded the limit.
Fernando Alonso was ‘best of the rest’ and unable to challenge Mercedes or Red Bull, but was easily ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn failing to make it out of Q2 and starts P11.
Romain Grosjean was the surprise winner in the wet conditions to make the Q3 cut, albeit in tenth. Meanwhile the McLarens failed to escape the second session.
Pastor Maldonado didn’t take part in qualifying thanks to an oil leak.
Qualifying – 2014 Chinese Grand Prix
| # | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:55.516 | 1:54.029 | 1:53.860 |
| 02 | D. Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:56.641 | 1:55.302 | 1:54.455 |
| 03 | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:56.058 | 1:54.499 | 1:54.960 |
| 04 | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:56.961 | 1:55.294 | 1:55.143 |
| 05 | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1:56.850 | 1:55.765 | 1:55.637 |
| 06 | F. Massa | Williams | 1:56.501 | 1:56.757 | 1:56.147 |
| 07 | V. Bottas | Williams | 1:56.501 | 1:56.253 | 1:56.282 |
| 08 | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:55.913 | 1:56.847 | 1:56.366 |
| 09 | J. Vergne | Toro Rosso | 1:57.477 | 1:56.584 | 1:56.773 |
| 10 | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 1:58.411 | 1:56.407 | 1:57.079 |
| 11 | K. Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:58.279 | 1:56.860 | |
| 12 | J. Button | McLaren | 1:57.783 | 1:56.953 | |
| 13 | D. Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:57.261 | 1:57.289 | |
| 14 | A. Sutil | Sauber | 1:58.138 | 1:57.393 | |
| 15 | K. Magnussen | McLaren | 1:57.369 | 1:57.675 | |
| 16 | S. Perez | Force India | 1:58.362 | 1:58.264 | |
| 17 | E. Gutierrez | Sauber | 1:58.988 | ||
| 18 | K. Kobayashi | Caterham | 1:59.260 | ||
| 19 | J. Bianchi | Marussia | 1:59.326 | ||
| 20 | M. Ericsson | Caterham | 2:00.646 | ||
| 21 | M. Chilton | Marussia | 2:00.865 | ||
| 22 | P. Maldonado | Lotus | No Time |
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