Vettel edges Raikkonen for pole, leads Ferrari front row lockout in Shanghai; Bottas again quicker than Hamilton for Mercedes as Silver Arrows qualify P3 and P4
Ferrari displayed definitive pace over their arch-rivals Mercedes in Saturday qualifying at the Shanghai International Circuit in China indicating that they may well have shifted to the favorites to win the one or both of the F1 championships this season. Their ace Sebastian Vettel was able to dig deep and take pole from his teammate Kimi Raikkonen with a sterling lap in the dying seconds of Q3. The Iceman had been looking good for his first-ever top starting spot in China but Vettel once again saved his best fo last, thwarting the best laid plans of his Finnish teammate by a mere .09 seconds. It was Vettel’s fourth career pole in China and it also marked two consecutive front row lockouts for Ferrari, the first time the famed Italian team have achieved that feat since the great Schumacher-Barrichello years back in 2006. Three race weekends into 2018 the Prancing Horses appear to be for real and Mercedes have so far not been able to match Maranello’s significant performance improvements.
That deficit by the Silver Arrows to Ferrari was clearly evident when Mercedes’ ostensible number two, Valtteri Bottas, lagged behind Raikkonen’s P2 time by nearly half a second. Worse yet for the team, its reigning champion Lewis Hamilton botched his last attempt in Q3 and had to settle for the fourth best time over all. It was the second time in a row that Bottas out-qualified Hamilton, an uncommon circumstance to say the least. The only potential external excuse Mercedes may have had for their lack of pace was the unusually cold weather in Shanghai, where temperatures hovered only in the low teens Celsius/50s Fahrenheit. Mercedes will hope to make a good start behind the Ferraris with their dynamic duo and then ride some sort of tire strategy to a potential upset. However Ferrari are starting on the same Pirelli Soft tires as the Silver Arrows so it remains to be seen which team can really play an advantage via savvy pit calls.
Further down the grid Red Bull are hoping for a bounce-back result after a double DNF in Bahrain. Max Verstappen was able to secure P5 on the grid, while his teammate Daniel Ricciardo and his crew did yeoman’s work to take P6. The Ricciardo side of the garage just got the Aussie veteran’s machine out in Q1 fir one flying lap good enough to go through after a blown engine in the last practice session and then an under-built Renault replacement engine almost caused the team to miss quali completely.
Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz qualified P7 and P9 for the Renault factory team respectively. They were split by the improving Force India of Sergio Perez in P8. Romain Grosjean drove well in his Haas to take P10 on the grid, outperforming his teammate Kevin Magnussen in qualifying for the first time this season.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Chinese GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:32.171 | 1:32.385 | 1:31.095 | |
| 2 | 1:32.474 | 1:32.286 | 1:31.182 | |
| 3 | 1:32.921 | 1:32.063 | 1:31.625 | |
| 4 | 1:33.283 | 1:31.914 | 1:31.675 | |
| 5 | 1:32.932 | 1:32.809 | 1:31.796 | |
| 6 | 1:33.877 | 1:32.688 | 1:31.948 | |
| 7 | 1:33.545 | 1:32.494 | 1:32.532 | |
| 8 | 1:33.464 | 1:32.931 | 1:32.758 | |
| 9 | 1:33.315 | 1:32.970 | 1:32.819 | |
| 10 | 1:33.238 | 1:32.524 | 1:32.855 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Sunday’s race airs live on ESPN2 starting at 2AM Eastern here in the States. So set that DVR or brew that late night pot of coffee because all six cars of the contending teams barreling into Turn 1 should alone be worth the price of admission!