Chinese GP: Lewis Hamilton earns maiden Mercedes pole position

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton beat Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso to pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton was nearly 0.3 seconds quicker than Raikkonen as he took his first pole position for his new Mercedes team.
Team-mate Nico Rosberg was fourth ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was ninth as team-mate Mark Webber missed the top 10 shoot-out after a fuel issue.


The Australian stopped out on track in second qualifying, apparently having run out of fuel, and was unable to make it into the top 10 shoot-out, ending up 14th.

He will be sent to the back of the grid unless the car has enough fuel in it to provide a one-litre sample as well as the amount of fuel required to get it back to the pits from where it stopped.


Team principal Christian Horner said: "We saw a big drop in collector pressure which either means there is not enough fuel in the car or there is a problem with the fuel pump. So there is either a problem with the car or the fuel 'bowser', which puts the fuel into the car."

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean was sixth ahead of the impressive Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso and McLaren's Jenson Button, who like Vettel used 'medium' tyres in final qualifying in an attempt to gain an advantage in the race.


The drivers ahead of Button and Vettel will all have to pit relatively early to change the fragile 'soft' tyres while the 'mediums' will last around 20 laps.

But Vettel and Button will have to use the 'softs' later in the race. "Obviously we are on a different strategy," Vettel said. "We will see whether it works tomorrow. But I am confident we did the right thing."


Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn said: "Those on the option will have to stop relatively early. It will be a fascinating race."

Hamilton's performance underlined the pace Mercedes had shown throughout the weekend and he was an impressive 0.377secs quicker than Rosberg, who made a mistake at the final corner.

Hamilton said: "[It's an] incredible feeling, so happy to have our first pole for some time. Ecstatic, the lap was great. I really hope we can carry that into tomorrow.

"[The gap is] really surprising because in [final practice] the Ferraris were really quick and we didn't know if we'd have enough pace."

Raikkonen said: "The gap is quite big still. We don't have that speed right now, we were second. Not too bad. The best I think I have been with the team. We are missing the downforce in the middle sector a bit. [We'll] see what we can do."
Alonso added: "Very happy. The weekend has been very good for us. The car felt competitive from Friday.
"The car is responding well and I think we have a good set-up for the race and if everything goes well we should be able to fight for the podium with both cars which is good for the team."
Qualifying result:

1. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes - 1:34.484
2. Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus - 1:34.761
3. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 1:34.788
4. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 1:34.861
5. Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 1:34.933
6. Romain Grosjean - Lotus - 1:35.364
7. Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso - 1:35.998
8. Jenson Button - McLaren - 2:05.673
9. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull
10. Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber



http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/22133162

These are the results for the qualifying, what pisses me off though is I was watching the BBC news and the sports correspondent on there is a genuine cock face, basically he said the chinese gp qualifying was done earlier but as it is being shown on air a bit later please look away now if you dont want to know the results. well for one they didnt put the result up on screen like they used to, instead about half a second later he just announces that hamilton has got pole ahead of a lotus and the vettel didnt attempt qualifying in order to save tyres then they showed footage of it. i mean what is the fucking point lol