Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has occupied the apex position in the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton's best time was recorded as 1 minute, 34.484 seconds on Saturday at the Shanghai International Circuit. He qualified by a quarter of a second forward of Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen. Fernando Alonso driving the Ferrari will start third in Sunday's race.
All runners limited their time on the track to defend their tires for the race, with all of the top ten having just one flying lap in the last stage of qualifying. This was a true cat-and-mouse qualifying session for all the contestants!
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and McLaren's Jenson Button both opted to do their flying lap on the harder of the two tire compounds. Actually they have sacrificed the grid position so that they can have a longer stint at the commencement of the race. Button qualified eighth while Vettel ninth.
Mark Webber of Red Bull suffered a fuel pressure failure in the second sector of the qualifying round which forced him to the14th position. He will begin from the back of the grid in case there is no sufficient fuel in the car to provide a sample to stewards.
Last year's winner Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg qualified in fourth, forward of Felipe Massa of Ferrari, Romain Grosjean of Lotus and Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso. Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg occupied the tenth position.
