Chinese Grand Prix Qualifying: Vettel snatches it from Raikkonen

A resurgent Raikkonen set the pace for most of the session and even improved on his final flying lap in Q3, but Vettel did the business with a storming lap of 1:31.095, enough to guarantee a top spot start for the race with his teammate beside him for another front row lockout as they did a week earlier in Bahrain - the first all Red back-to-back front row since 2006!

Vettel said afterwards, "I was happy with the whole lap. The car was really amazing, just kept getting better. I made a few mistakes on the opening lap. I was a bit beaten up by I knew that if I got a tidy lap and a little bit of margin then I could push."

Raikkonen added, "It was OK but not good enough. It's not exactly what I wanted. We go tomorrow and see what we can do. We will try to improve. We need to stay out of any issues and see what it brings."

In contrast, Mercedes were well and truly trounced, on a cold and windy afternoon they simply did not have the pace or the 'party mode' to match Ferrari who had about half a second advantage on the day.

Valtteri Bottas was third quickest ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton in fourth, making for an all silver second row. The Finn edging the Briton out by five-hundredths of a second.

Bottas told reporters, "For us, it was quite straightforward qualifying. We couldn't achieve the same grip levels as Ferrari."

A glimmer of hope for the Silver Arrows is that race conditions should be warmer and thus more suitable to their package.

Hamilton summed up, "The car felt OK but I don't really have the answer for it. It's a lot hotter tomorrow so it will be a challenge to see if we can keep up with them. I don't know if we can challenge - we were half a second behind today. We were quicker in the last race but they were able to hold on."

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was fifth fastest, 0.7 of a second shy of the top time while his teammate Daniel Ricciardo recovered impressively from a Renault engine blow-up in the final minutes of FP3 in the morning. He was sixth fastest.

Nevertheless, a big round of applause for the Red Bull crew managing an engine change in the two hours between sessions. No panic, just cool and collected work to get their man out on track for qualifying. Bravo to the unsung heroes of the sport.

Red Bull team chief Christian Horner said, "What they have achieved today is miraculous, getting the engine turned around, dressed and onto the car. It was Herculean. Seeing Max's mechanics as well diving in when and where they could, that is what a team is all about."

Heading the 'second division' was Nico Hulkenberg, 1.4 seconds down on Vettel's top time, but enough to be best of the rest in the Renault and claim sixth on the timing screens with teammate Carlos Sainz in ninth.

Sergio Perez made the most of the pace unlocked by Force India this weekend to split the yellow cars on the timesheets and claim ninth. His teammate Esteban Ocon failed to make it out of Q2, he was 12th.

Haas driver Romain Grosjean rounded out the top ten, outqualifying Kevin Magnussen who had the upper hand in the practice sessions, the Dane was 11th.

Neither McLaren made it into Q3. Fernando Alonso was 13th and Stoffel Vandoorne 14th. The only 'good news' for the Papayas is that they bettered Toro Rosso. Brendon Hartley was 15th and Pierre Gasly 17th.

Williams found some pace to drag their drivers off the back of the grid, with rookie Sergey Sirotkin 16th - missing the Q3 cut by five-hundredths of a second. Lance Stroll was 18th, ahead of rookie Charles Leclerc who out-qualified his more experienced teammate Marcus Ericsson for the first time.

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff conceded: "No [we didn't expect Ferrari to be so strong]. They've been really strong all day. Their qualifying performance they put one on top and we really have something to think about."

Raikkonen set the early pace in Q1 with a lap of 1:32.474, with the Mercedes cars of Bottas and Hamilton slotting in behind. However, seven minutes into the 18-minute session Vettel jumped to the top of the order with a lap of 1:32.171.

Vettel’s time was good enough to keep him on top for the remainder of the session, with Raikkonen eventually finishing in second, three-tenths of a second behind his team-mate. Bottas was third and Verstappen fourth ahead of Grosjean and Hamilton.

There was a race against time for Verstappen’s team-mate Ricciardo, however. The Australian suffered an engine failure midway through the final practice and as the 18 minutes of Q1 counted down Ricciardo’s side of the garage was a hive of activity as his crew raced to complete an engine change.

Ricciardo eventually made into track with a little over two minutes to spare and his only flying lap of the session saw him clamber up to P13.

That became 14th place as Sainz powered through to seventh place but the drop stopped there for Ricciardo and he repaid his mechanics’ hard work with qualification for the second session.

He would be joined by Hartley who edged out of the drop zone and into P15 with his final flying lap.

The margin was fine, though, with the New Zealander finishing just five-hundredths of a second clear of Sirotkin and 0.88s ahead of his Toro Rosso team-mate Gasly who finished ahead ofStroll and the Saubers of Leclerc and Ericsson.

Raikkonen set the pace in Q2, with the Finn posting a lap of 1:32.286 as Ferrari and Mercedes looked to qualify using soft tyres and thus will start on those sets. Vettel was 0.099s behind his teammate, with a more comfortable Ricciardo, on ultrasofts, a further three tenths back. Bottas was fourth ahead of Verstappen and then came Hamilton.

The Briton went for a second run on softs, however and duly took top spot with a lap of 1:31.914 that put him just over a tenth ahead of Bottas, with Raikkonen third in front of Vettel, both of whom abandoned final runs on ultrasofts. Hulkenberg was fifth ahead of, Grosjean, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Pérez and Sainz.

Out went 11th–placed Magnussen followed by Ocon, Alonso and Vandoorne, while Hartley stayed in the 15th place.

Raikkonen set the pace in the first runs of Q3, with the veteran Finn finishing 0.161s ahead of Vettel. Bottas was third, 0.425 behind his fellow Finn, while Hamilton was fourth, five-hundredths of a second behind his team-mate. Verstappen and Ricciardo were fifth and sixth respectively.

But it was Vettel who made the biggest step in the final runs. As Bottas failed to improve and small errors led to Hamilton abandoning his lap and settling for fourth, a lap of 1:31.182 looked to have sealed an 18th career pole for Raikkonen, but Vettel edged ahead, principally in the final sector, and the German claimed his 52nd pole and a new track record with his lap of 1:31.095.

With Mercedes in third and fourth, Verstappen took fourth place ahead of teammate Ricciardo. Hulkenberg was best of the rest in seventh place, ahead of Perez, Sainz and Grosjean.