For the second race in a row this F1 season, Scuderia Ferrari will be starting in the front row as Sebastian Vettel clinched the pole at the Chinese Grand Prix, followed by Kimi Raikkonen. While Raikkonen seemed to be stronger throughout qualifying and seemed to have taken the pole at Shanghai, a super lap by Vettel beat his teammate to the top spot by just 0.087s. Following the Ferraris were the Mercedes W09s as Valtteri Bottas qualified third ahead of reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Vettel and Raikkonen reinforced Ferrari's dominant pace through qualifying in the final practice by setting the pace in Q1. While Raikkonen was leading the charge, Vettel was a good 0.750s quicker than the Bottas' Mercedes. Behind him was Hamilton, just 0.12s faster than Red Bull's Max Verstappen in fifth and did not seem like a serious thereat to the Ferraris. More so, after no improvement in times during Q3 and both abandoning their final runs.
In fact, the Shanghai qualifying broke Mercedes' record of starting on pole for the past six years. Both Mercedes and Ferrari completed Q3 on soft compounds and will be starting at the race tomorrow on the same, while the rest of the grid opts for ultrasofts.
(Vettel and Raikkonen will be starting in the front row, followed by Bottas and Hamilton)
Vettel secured his career's 52nd pole position as he leads the 2018 F1 driver standings. Raikkonen's last pole was in Monaco in 2017. The Chinese GP also marks Ferrari's second consecutive front row lockout this season, something that was last achieved in 2006 at the US and French Grand Prixs.
Starting sixth behind Verstappen will be his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who did a fantastic job after his engine suspected a turbo failure during Free Practice 3, which required an engine replacement. The Australian managed to scrape through to Q2 in a single run, two places above elimination.
In the middle-order, Nico Hulkenberg of Renault will start seventh tomorrow, 1.473s ahead of Force India's Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz. Romain Grosjean took the 10th spot and was just 0.036s behind Sainz's Renault.
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen was eliminated in Q2 after failing to improve his time since the first run but managed to stay ahead of Esteban Ocon of Force India. The McLaren twins piloted by Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne were up next in 13th and 14th place respectively after being eliminated on Q2.
Torro Rosso's Brandon Hartley was the slowest driver in Q2 and will start 15th tomorrow, ahead of Sergey Sirotkin of Sauber. However, it was Pierre Gasly's Q1 run disappointing the most after some exceptional driving in Bahrain last weekend. The slowest drivers in Q1 were Williams' Lance Stroll followed by the Saubers of Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson.
Ferrari certainly has the advantage in Shanghai and the pace too, lasting more than Mercedes on the more durable rubber. While both the W09s did pick up pace later in qualifying, they were still four and six tenths of a second off from the Ferraris.
Will the Italians be able to convert the pole into a victory? That's something we look forward to see tomorrow as we just might see Vettel inching a lot closer to lifting the championship trophy at end of the season, with three consecutive wins in hand.
