Hamilton claims pole despite late scare as frustrated Rosberg gets within a tenth of lead Mercedes; Vettel qualifies third for Ferrari but Raikkonen sixth behind Williamses; McLaren drop out in Q1 again
Monday 13 April 2015 15:22, UK
Lewis Hamilton maintained his dominance of qualifying in 2015 by beating Nico Rosberg to head an all-Mercedes front-row for the Chinese GP.
The world champion had proved untouchable at the head of the timesheet from the moment practice commenced in Shanghai and qualifying proved no different as he secured a fifth career pole at the circuit. However, Hamilton did survive a late fright as Nico Rosberg got to within 0.042s of his 1:35.782 time as the Briton failed to improve on his final lap.
Having become the first team-mate to beat Hamilton over a season on Saturdays last year, Rosberg has yet to outpace his team-mate so far in 2015 and his frustration boiled over after the session when he criticised his Mercedes team for ordering him to increase his speed on his warm-up lap.
"We need to look at that as that was not ideal to put me under pressure like that,” complained the German to Sky F1 after crying "come on guys" over the team radio upon being told he had been beaten to pole by a mere four tenths of a second.
As expected, Malaysia GP victors Ferrari couldn’t break into the fight for the front row but the one-second gap to polesitter Hamilton still proved a surprise - as did the fact that third-placed Sebastian Vettel and sixth-placed Kimi Raikkonen were split by Williams pair Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.
Still, Vettel will line up as the lead challenger to Mercedes and could still find himself in the hunt for a second successive win given Ferrari’s long runs on the medium tyre looked comparable to the world champions’ on Friday.
"It was a different strategy we had in Q3 with only going once on new tyres, but these [Mercedes] guys were a bit quicker than we expected to be honest," Vettel admitted. "I think we got everything right and P3 was our maximum today. On Sunday we should be a bit closer - how close we will find out. I am looking forward to going racing,"
Hamilton himself is expecting another challenge from the men in red: “They are very quick here and have been quick here in the past," he told Sky Sports F1. "They have been very, very fast in the past here on their runs and they should be close.”
Williams, meanwhile, will be relieved with their performance as the Grove team qualified between the two Ferraris after finishing a massive 70 seconds behind their expected 2015 rivals last time out. Despite missing most of Practice Two on Friday, it was Felipe Massa who will line up as the lead FW37 in fourth - the Brazilian impressively extending his own 100% qualifying record over Valtteri Bottas so far this season.
Sixth place represented another disappointing grid slot for Kimi Raikkonen, the Finn seemingly struggling with the rear of his Ferrari as he lapped half a second slower than Vettel. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo claimed seventh, with Romain Grosjean three tenths back in eighth for Lotus.
Rejuvenated Sauber completed the top 10 with Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson, the inexperienced duo making the Q3 cut at the expense of Lotus's Pastor Maldonado and, more surprisingly, Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat who has endured a troubled weekend so far.
The top 10 is currently a number of races away from McLaren-Honda's thoughts after expectations that the Woking team would clear Q1 for the first time in 2015 failed to materialise in Shanghai. For the third consecutive event, the team's drivers will start from 17th and 18th positions – although they will take some solace from the fact that they continue to close the deficit to the midfield teams.
Jenson Button again outpaced Fernando Alonso after the Spaniard made a mistake on his final Q1 lap, but the fact that the vastly experienced world champion pair were separated by just 0.004s points to the fact that both are extracting what currently stands as the limit of the MP4-30’s performance.
Manor continue to provide a buffer between McLaren and the back of the grid and the revived team are set to race with two cars for the first time this season after both Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi made the 107% qualifying cut.
Chinese GP qualifying timesheet
1 L Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes 1:35.782
2 N Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes 1:35.824
3 S Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 1:36.687
4 F Massa (Brz) Williams 1:36.954
5 V Bottas (Fin) Williams 1:37.143
6 K Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:37.232
7 D Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 1:37.540
8 R Grosjean (Fra) Lotus 1:37.905
9 F Nasr (Brz) Sauber 1:38.067
10 M Ericsson (Swe) Sauber 1:38.158
11 P Maldonado (Ven) Lotus 1:38.134
12 D Kvyat (Rus) Red Bull 1:38.209
13 M Verstappen (Ned) Toro Rosso 1:38.393
14 C Sainz (Esp) Toro Rosso 1:38.538
15 S Perez (Mex) Force India 1:39.290
16 N Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India 1:39.216
17 J Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:39.276
18 F Alonso (Esp) McLaren 1:39.280
19 W Stevens (Gbr) Marussia 1:42.091
20 R Merhi (Esp) Marussia 1:42.842
