Damon Hill: This is the turning point

The 1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill believes so, "This is the turning point. For so long we have seen Mercedes dominate. They've had the party mode in qualifying but now both Ferrari cars are ahead of Mercedes."

"Hamilton looked a little out of sorts, good performance from Valtteri. I thought Kimi had it in the bag. That was such a perfect lap that I didn't think anybody could do better than that. But Sebastian Vettel showed his class," added Hill.

Mercedes have claimed all eight titles on offer in Formula 1 since the advent of the current turbo era, winning 63 grands prix during this period while Ferrari, without a title since 2007, have only scored ten victories in the same period.

At the season opener in Melbourne last month, Mercedes had the better car, so much so that Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole but a whopping seven-tenths of a second over his closest rival on the day. But after that things seem to have gotten a little sour for Mercedes.

First, Sebastian Vettel stole victory in Australia when it appeared that Hamilton had the win in the bag. Then in Bahrain, the Reds upped the ante a notch or two in terms of pace and locked out the front row before going on to win the race, again outsmarting Mercedes in the strategy stakes when it mattered.

On both the occasions the nagging feeling was that Mercedes had a better package but simply messed up the maths, slipped up and got done by Ferrari.

However, qualifying in China suggests that the Italian team have their own 'party mode' which, by Hamilton's own admission, gave the Maranello outfit a half second advantage around Shanghai International Circuit. The tables were turned in the space of four weeks.

Down the order, the other Mercedes powered teams have not enjoyed the engine advantage they once had. Force India are not in the same shape as they were at the end of last year when they were fourth in the pecking order, while Williams' hardships are well documented.

On the other hand, Ferrari powered teams are enjoying a resurgence of sorts, with the Haas team playing in the 'Best of the Rest' zone while Sauber have found a full second, relative to the pole-winning time, when compared to qualifying last year in Shanghai.

It is perhaps a tad too early to write off the reigning World Champions, but now they have a major fight on their hands and another defeat by the Reds on Sunday, could well mean that the turning point is upon us as Hill prophesized.