
Lewis Hamilton has qualified on pole position for the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix, making it his 6th successive pole (carrying over from last season), as well as his 6th pole in China, and his 63rd all-time pole, just 5 behind Michael Schumacher's 68. He edged Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel by just under two-tenths of a second, who beat fellow Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas by a miniscule one-thousandths of a second.
In Q1, Esteban Ocon of Force India, Red Bull's Max Verstappen, Renault's Jolyon Palmer, Haas' Romain Grosjean and McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne were eliminated. The biggest shock of these was Max Verstappen, however, he had an issue with the engine. At the end of the session, however, Sauber's Antonio Giovinazzi crashed on the main straight, and thus it compromised many drivers. Fortunately Giovinazzi was ok. Romain Grosjean and Jolyon Palmer are under investigation for improving their lap times at the end of the session, though no outcome has been announced just yet - as soon as we get the outcome we will announce it on our website.
As a result of Giovinazzi's crash, the start of Q2 was delayed by 10 minutes as they had to repair the tyre barrier. The drivers eliminated were Giovinazzi (who didn't take part in Q2 as a result of his Q1 crash), team-mate Marcus Ericsson, McLaren's Fernando Alonso, Haas' Kevin Magnussen and Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz. Williams rookie Lance Stroll made it into Q3 for the first time in his Formula 1 career (or be it this is only his second race weekend).
Then Q3, the top 10 shootout, came. At the end of the first run, Hamilton was fastest, followed by Vettel, Bottas and fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen (who drives for Ferrari). Hamilton did make a slight mistake in his first run, as he had to correct a moment of oversteer, although he was still fastest. Then in the second run Hamilton improved on his first lap time, and set an impressive 1:31.678. Valtteri Bottas then set a 1:31.865 and it was enough to put him in second place ahead of the Ferraris, however, Vettel pipped him to the second by one-thousandth of a second. Kimi Raikkonen qualified fourth, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, Felipe Massa, Nico Hulkenberg, Daniil Kvyat and Lance Stroll.
Qualifying classification:
Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes
Nico Hulkenberg - Renault
Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
Daniil Kvyat - STR-Renault
Lance Stroll - Williams-Mercedes
Carlos Sainz - STR-Renault
Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari
Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda
Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
Antonio Giovinazzi - Sauber-Ferrari
Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren-Honda
Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari
Jolyon Palmer - Renault
Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Esteban Ocon - Force India-Mercedes
Note: Romain Grosjean and Jolyon Palmer are under investigation for improving their lap times under yellow flag conditions.