Lewis Hamilton secured his third consecutive pole position this season ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg missed out by just 0.042 seconds with Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari rounding off the top three.

The talk going into this weekend was whether Ferrari could challenge Mercedes, but the Silver Arrows underlined their superiority over one lap with yet another front row lockout. Vettel went third fastest and is in a good position to try and build on his win in Malaysia last time out.

Q1 saw Hamilton have a problem with his seat, the Brit was telling his engineers that during his flying laps his seat was getting too hot. Not the first time this weekend with the same problem occurring in practice yesterday. However he held his nerve and grabbed his third straight pole in China.

McLaren were looking ever stronger in Q1, sitting as high as eighth and tenth at one point. But the teams around them picked up the pace and the Woking team slipped down the order and Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso line up 17th and 18th respectively. For the first time this season both Manor cars qualified, albeit dead last with Roberto Merhi 20th and Will Stevens 19th.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was the one to miss out on Q2, with a battle between him, the two Lotus’ and Toro Rosso’s to make it through to the second phase of qualifying.

Q2 saw a fascinating battle for the top ten. Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat was the big scalp as he could only qualify 12th. Both Toro Rosso’s of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz missed out also, going 13th and 14th respectively. Sauber were the surprise package here as both cars managed to make it through to Q3 for the first time since the 2013 US Grand Prix.

The track was constantly evolving here with times gradually getting faster. Hamilton was hitting early 1:36’s in the second phase, two seconds up on his Q1 fastest. Lotus were surprisingly fast here in Shanghai, with Romain Grosjean making it into Q3, while Pastor Maldonado marginally missed out, finishing 11th.

The top ten shootout was largely expected, as Mercedes flexed their one lap muscles and locked out the front row. Kimi Raikkonen will be disappointed with his time only being good enough for sixth. Both Williams cars managed to finish ahead of him. Felipe Massa went fourth with a great time while Valterri Bottas went fifth, just ahead of his compatriot.

Nico Rosberg couldn’t better Hamilton, and missed out by four hundredths of a second. The German sounded exasperated on the radio on his warm down lap. “Oh come on guys,” being his response to being told he’d missed out on pole.

With tomorrow being the time we’re expected to see Ferrari stake their claim to the win, Sebastian Vettel sits third, in a prime place to pounce should Hamilton or Rosberg get bogged down at the start. Ferrari’s long run pace is set to be better than Mercedes, meaning another exciting race like Malaysia lies in wait.

Daniel Ricciardo was the lead Red Bull based car in seventh, and the squad’s only representative in the top ten. Grosjean went eighth with the Sauber pair of Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson rounding off the top ten in China.

Grid for tomorrow's Chinese Grand Prix.

# Driver Team
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari
4 Felipe Massa Williams
5 Valterri Bottas Williams
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull
8 Romain Grosjean Lotus
9 Felipe Nasr Sauber
10 Marcus Ericsson Sauber
11 Pastor Maldonado Lotus
12 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull
13 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso
14 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso
15 Sergio Perez Force India
16 Nico Hulkenberg Force India
17 Jenson Button McLaren
18 Fernando Alonso McLaren
19 Will Stevens Manor
20 Roberto Merhi Manor
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About the author
Aaron Irwin
Formula 1 editor, Football League co-editor at VAVEL UK. Writer since July 2014. Hull City correspondent. Currently studying for a Journalism degree at Hull School of Art and Design.