China Qualifying: Hamilton on pole as Rosberg comes close

Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton stormed to his third successive pole position of the season, and third in a row in China, after edging team-mate Nico Rosberg in a front-row lockout for Mercedes on Saturday.

Hamilton, unbeaten in qualifying so far this year, lapped the 5.451 km Shanghai International Circuit in 1:35.782 seconds to take his 41st career pole just 0.042 of a second clear of Rosberg.

Hamilton said, "China is continuing to be generally a good circuit for me. The car is handling fantastically well this weekend, a lot better compared to how it was in Malaysia."

As for the lessons learned in Malaysia the Briton said, "There's too many to mention but obviously it wasn't the tidiest weekend for us."

"For us on my side of the garage, we've tried to get our full programme in, we've not had any problems this weekend. We've still a tough race ahead because the Ferraris are good on long-run pace, so it's not over by any means," predicted Hamilton.

The reigning world champion posted his pole winning lap on his first flying lap in Q3, which at that point was three tenths up on Rosberg. Hamilton's second flyer was not an improvement, leaving Rosberg an opportunity which he did not seize and fell short by the narrowest of margins.

"Oh, come on guys," exclaimed a frustrated Rosberg when informed over the radio that he had lost out by such a small margin.

He added afterwards, "When it's four hundredths... that's nothing. I'm frustrated because it's so close."

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, winner of the previous race in Malaysia, will start third. Ferrari, who were helped by a bold strategy gamble and searing temperatures at Sepang, continued to lead the chasing pack but were unable to match Mercedes’ formidable one-lap pace in the cooler conditions.

Vettel’s best time was nearly a second off Hamilton’s benchmark, but the quadruple world champion was content,

"Happy with today - it was a different strategy for us today in Q3, going only once on used set. Mercedes were quicker than expected - P3 was the maximum we could have expected today."

"Hopefully tomorrow will be closer - we're looking forward to going racing - it's not far to turn one. And it's a track where tyres are important."

Brazilian Felipe Massa and Finland's Valtteri Bottas, seeking to re-establish their Williams team as Mercedes’ closest challengers, were fourth and fifth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari in sixth.

Former champions Red Bull, who had looked the third-best team after final practice, dropped back with Australian Daniel Ricciardo only seventh.

His Russian team-mate Daniil Kvyat, meanwhile, failed to even make it through to the top 10.

McLaren had another bleak afternoon and failed to make it past the first session of qualifying for the third successive weekend, once again qualifying ahead of only the backmarking Manor Marussias.

Both Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso had hoped to make it into the second phase after an encouraging Friday but in the end missed the cut by just over two tenths of a second and will start 17th and 18th, respectively.

[highlight ]Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai International Circuit - Qualifying, Saturday 11 April 2015[/highlight]