Lewis Hamiliton Claims Brilliant China Pole
Very good display from lewis.
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Lewis Hamilton put himself in the best place to move another step closer to his world championship dream with yet another last-gasp pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix.
And to set up a re-match of last week’s first-corner dice at Fuji, the championship leader will have Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen alongside him on the front row after the Finn led the way away following the first runs in Q3.
Hamilton’s main title rival Felipe Massa, however, will start still feel he is right in the mix for victory after taking third in the other Ferrari.
But the third championship protagonist Robert Kubica’s already outside title hopes were dealt a huge blow after the BMW driver endured his worst qualifying session of the season and missed the Q2 cut.
The Shanghai weather forecast, however, could still allow the Pole to rescue his hopes from 11th on the grid with rain and thunderstorms predicted for at least part of Sunday’s race.
And while wet weather is unlikely to faze pole-sitter Hamilton, one advantage he does not have is a rear-gunner directly behind him after the sister McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen could manage only fifth on the grid.
Renault's Fernando Alonso built on his back-to-back race victories to put himself right in the picture at the front in fourth – and in a position to potentially play a role in the championship fight.
And while the title race between Hamilton and Massa remains open, the battle for pole position at least looked to be a closed book after the points leader had dominated much of practice and then Q1.
Ferrari, however, came to life in the crucial phases of the qualifying hour and following the first Q3 runs, Raikkonen was on provisional pole with Massa second and Hamilton over 0.5s adrift in fifth.
But not for the first time in his short career, the Briton rose to the challenge and, despite Raikkonen lowering the benchmark still further, completed a lap of 1m34.947s which was a mighty 0.4s faster than the Finn could manage.
With Massa’s improvement not enough to move him back onto the front-row, Alonso came up on the rails to almost steal third from him while a mistake at turn 14 helped consign Kovalainen to a disappointed fifth.
The sixth-fastest time went to Red Bull’s Mark Webber after a stunning qualifying performance, but the Australian will start in 16th after the team was forced to change his Renault engine after it blew spectacularly in final practice – meaning he picks up the mandatory 10-place grid drop.
Kubica’s struggles meant BMW’s hopes rested on Nick Heidfeld and the German responded well to claim seventh, which becomes sixth on the grid.
But the German could yet find himself in hot water with the stewards after the second Red Bull of David Coulthard claimed he was held up by the BMW driver during Q1.
Both Toro Rossos again made the top 10, with Sebastian Vettel two spots ahead of Sebastien Bourdais, and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli set to start between them in eighth.
Renault’s Nelson Piquet Jr missed out on a place in the pole position shootout by just 0.007s, but will 10th tenth nevertheless thanks to Webber’s grid penalty.
Kubica endured qualifying session of the season at just the wrong time for his outside championship hopes, with the Pole struggling with an understeering BMW throughout.
After having to use the soft tyres to just scrape himself into Q2 earlier in the hour, a poor grid slot looked on the cards and his fortunes failed to improve much with Heidfeld proving far happier in the sister car.
Toyota’s Timo Glock will start 12th after a disappointing qualifying session, but the same can’t be said for Rubens Barrichello who produced a timely reminder of his talents to his Honda bosses.
The veteran Brazilian, fighting to continue his career at the team in 2009, made the second session for the time in four months in a performance that seemed to defy the speed of the Honda around Shanghai – outperforming team-mate Jenson Button by 0.4s in the first session.
Williams’s expected struggle in China materialised with Nico Rosberg set to start 14th after going slowest of all in the second session, while team-mate Kazuki Nakajima failed to make the Q1 cut in 17th.
Completing a difficult day for Red Bull Racing, Coulthard fell at the first hurdle under an hour after RBR boss Christian Horner had told ITV Sport that Webber’s grid demotion placed big pressure on the sister car to salvage a strong grid slot for the team.
However Coulthard was furious with Heidfeld after missing out after the German driver ducked inside him at the final corner at end of their respective out laps, meaning Coulthard was forced to follow him throughout his crucial final fast lap, before the BMW then headed straight for the pit lane.
Afterwards the Scot confirmed he had asked RBR’s team manager to make a formal complaint to the stewards after what he described as “unsportsmanlike behaviour” from the German.
Coulthard will start three slots ahead of fellow Briton Button following another miserable qualifying session for the Honda driver.
The Force India drivers took up their usual residence at the bottom of the timesheet, with its drivers separated by just 0.009s on the back row.
Provisional starting grid for the Chinese GP
1. HAMILTON McLaren
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari
3. MASSA Ferrari
4. ALONSO Renault
5. KOVALAINEN McLaren
6. HEIDFELD BMW
7. VETTEL Toro Rosso
8. TRULLI Toyota
9. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso
10. PIQUET Renault
11. KUBICA BMW
12. GLOCK Toyota
13. BARRICHELLO Honda
14. ROSBERG Williams
15. COULTHARD Red Bull
16. WEBBER Red Bull*
17. NAKAJIMA Williams
18. BUTTON Honda
19. SUTIL Force India
20. FISICHELLA Force India
*10-place grid penalty for engine change
