After an eventful 2 week layoff that included the resignation of long time Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali, the boys of F1 qualified today in Shanghai. Would the shake up at Maranello lead to better results by the Prancing Horse? Or would Mercedes continue its early-season dominance?
Hamilton scores 3rd Pole of season, Red Bull back in the hunt in rainy China
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton stamped his authority on Qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix Saturday putting on a dazzling performance in soaking conditions in Shanghai and taking his 3rd Pole of the season out of 4 races. His teammate, championship leader Nico Rosberg, who has been every bit Hamilton’s equal until today, could only muster 4th position with several lurid spins in Q3. That enabled the reinvigorated Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel to snatch the 2nd and 3rd spots on the grid respectively for Sunday’s race. Vettel’s junior teammate has now out-qulaified him 3 out of 4 times this season and with a little better luck the young Aussie could well have been in Drivers’ Championship contention.
After the shakeup at Ferrari this week with Domenicali falling on his sword, the hiring of Marco Mattiaci, former president of Ferrari North America, as replacement and Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo vowing more involvement, all eyes were on the Scuderia to see if there would be any improvement to emerge from such dramatic events. But again, in the rain as in the dry, the Ferrari F14 T proved itself a mediocre machine at best, with Fernando Alonso overdriving it to a solid 5th position and Kimi Raikkonen underperforming and managing only 11th. If Alonso cannot come up with something special in the race tomorrow and grab a podium finish, one has to wonder who’s head will be next to roll at Maranello.
Williams continued its strong comeback season with Filipe Massa able to come home 6th and his Finnish teammate Valtteri Botas starting 7th on the grid. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg had another strong performance and qualified 8th, a full 8 spots ahead of his teammate and Bahrain 3rd place-finisher, Sergio Perez. Rounding out the top 10, Jean-Eric Vergne had his best quali of the year at 9th and Romain Grosjean gave a small ray of hope to beleagured team Lotus with his 10th place finish. It was the first time a Lotus has gone through to Q3 this year. That small fillip for the team was somewhat tarnished by Pastor Maldonado’s disastrous and accident-prone few days in China where he crashed twice during Friday practice, once while fiddling with the settings on his wheel and once on the very tricky pit entrance. So between the Venezuelan not setting a qualifying time at all and the penalty from his get together with Gutierrez in Bahrain, the second Lotas will start dead last tomorrow.
Also singing the blues after today were Ron Dennis and McLaren as, after an encouraging first two races, the team reversed their momentum in Bahrain after both cars failed to finish due to clutch issues. And that backwards trend continued in Shanghai with neither Jensen Button (12th) or Kevin Magnussen (15th) making it out of Q2. Tomorrow’s Grand Prix, which is expected to be dry, should show whether the McLaren MP4-29 chassis is simply not very strong in the wet or if there are more ominous underlying problems.
Top 10 qualifiers here:
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:55.516 | 1:54.029 | 1:53.860 | 21 |
| 2 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:56.641 | 1:55.302 | 1:54.455 | 23 |
| 3 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:55.926 | 1:54.499 | 1:54.960 | 23 |
| 4 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:56.058 | 1:55.294 | 1:55.143 | 22 |
| 5 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:56.961 | 1:55.765 | 1:55.637 | 21 |
| 6 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1:56.850 | 1:56.757 | 1:56.147 | 24 |
| 7 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1:56.501 | 1:56.253 | 1:56.282 | 24 |
| 8 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:55.913 | 1:56.847 | 1:56.366 | 23 |
| 9 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Renault | 1:57.477 | 1:56.584 | 1:56.773 | 23 |
| 10 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:58.411 | 1:56.407 | 1:57.079 | 22 |
Complete qualifying results here at Formula1.com.
The Chinese Grand Prix airs overnight here on the East Coast of the USA at 3AM live on the NBCSports channel.