Mercedes roars back in China: Hamilton seizes Pole, Rosberg 2nd; Vettel strong again for Ferrari to grab 3rd on the grid
Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton reasserted their authority in China on Saturday, with the English reigning World Champion and points leader laying down a blistering qualifying lap for Pole for Sunday’s race that no other challenger could match. After Ferrari’s Malaysian upset two weeks ago that saw the Mercedes brain trust ruing tire strategy and questioning their overall performance the Silver Arrows were back to their untouchable ways, with Nico Rosberg a mere four one-hundredths behind Hamilton but nearly .8 ahead of previous Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel’s Prancing Horse. While fans and pundits had hoped Ferrari’s impressively improved form heralded the beginning of a true two-team battle for the Constructors’ Championship it seems more likely now that Malaysia was the exception not the rule.
The two Mercedes-powered Williams of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas struggled with handling at times but not flat out pace and claimed P4 and P5 respectively. That split the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, who also appeared to have a hard time holding on to his car, away from his faster teammate and left the Finn settling for 6th on the grid. Daniel Ricciardo had a good run for troubled Red Bull, taking a strong P7. But as if to reinforce the RB-11’s vulnerabilities, his teammate Daniil Kvyat was plagued by rear brake and ERS issues and was out in Q2. The young Russian will start a lowly P12. Romain Grosjean had a strong performance for Lotus with a P8, again showing that the team has the pace to compete for points if not quite the reliability or consistency from their drivers (Pastor Maldonado was out in Q2 at P11). The two Saubers of Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson continued to show that they had inherited the title of “little team that could” from scuffling Force India and rounded out the Top 10 with P9 and P10 respectively.
Despite showing significant improvement over the each of the first three race weekends, the McLarens of Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso still could not make it out of Q1. They will start at the back of the field in P17 and 18 ahead of only the two hapless Manor-Marussia cars.
Top 10 Qualifiers here:
| Pos | No | Name | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:38.285 | 1:36.423 | 1:35.782 | 12 |
| 2 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:38.496 | 1:36.747 | 1:35.824 | 12 |
| 3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:37.502 | 1:36.957 | 1:36.687 | 17 |
| 4 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:38.433 | 1:37.357 | 1:36.954 | 15 |
| 5 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:38.014 | 1:37.763 | 1:37.143 | 15 |
| 6 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:37.790 | 1:37.109 | 1:37.232 | 17 |
| 7 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing | 1:38.534 | 1:37.939 | 1:37.540 | 18 |
| 8 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:38.209 | 1:38.063 | 1:37.905 | 20 |
| 9 | 12 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:38.521 | 1:38.017 | 1:38.067 | 16 |
| 10 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:38.941 | 1:38.127 | 1:38.158 | 15 |
Complete qualifying results available at Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race is another overnighter here on the East Coast and airs live on NBCSN at 2AM. Let’s see if anyone has anything for Hamilton and Mercedes. I tend to doubt it.