Lewis Hamilton won his second pole position of the season and 63rd in his career after he was fastest in both Q3 attempts ahead of Vettel in a Ferrari and his team-mate Bottas.
Hamilton is now just two pole positions shy of Senna’s record and five from Michael Schumacher while Mercedes won 75th pole pole position in their 150th race.
Hamilton was fastest in the first Q3 attempts (1:31.902) after he went wide in the third corner and had some oversteer in the first corner in the third sector, and Vettel was 0.184 seconds slower ahead of Bottas and Raikkonen.
But Hamilton improved his time by 0.224 seconds (1:31.678) ahead of Vettel who pushed Bottas in the second Mercedes in third place. This is the fastest lap in the history of this track, 0.560 seconds faster than Schumacher’s previous record set in the 2004 race.
Raikkonen was fourth fastest after being quickest in Q2, while Ricciardo was fifth in the Red Bull with 1.3 seconds behind Hamilton and ahead of Massa in Williams who was another half a second slower.
Nico Hulkenberg was seventh in the Renault R.S.17 with 1.9 seconds behind Hamilton and just o.547 seconds behind the Red Bull with the same engine. Perez was a tenth slower in the Force India after he drove only one lap in Q3, just like Lance Stroll in Williams.
Kvyat ensured Q3 place for Toro Rosso and will start ninth with 0.013 seconds behind Perez while Stroll was the tenth and Williams helped achieve double Q3 placement, just like Mercedes and Ferrari.
In the first qualifying round eliminated drivers were Vandoorne, Grosjean, Palmer, Verstappen and Ocon. Grosjean spun at the last corner and destroyed his last lap and Giovinazzi lost control in the same corner and crashed into a barrier on the left side of the track.
Despite a crash in the final moments of Q2, Giovinazzi advanced into Q2 with the 15th fastest time, but it remains to be seen whether the Italian will get a penalty for possible change of gearbox.
Sainz missed Q3 for just six hundredths and Magnussen for just 0.074 s while Alonso was 13th fastest with 0.282 seconds behind the Q3 cut-off time after he was 10th fastest with 1.4 s behind Vettel.
Marcus Ericsson managed to qualify in Q2 and finished 14th fastest in the improved Sauber C36 with last year’s Ferrari engine in front of team-mate Giovinazzi that could not compete in Q2.
Vandoorne missed Q2 by six hundredths of a second and will start 16th, while Grosjean finished 17th quickest after an error in the last corner.
Jolyon Palmer in Renault again had a poor qualifying with the 18th fastest time in Q1, 0.8 seconds behind team mate Hulkenberg and Grosjean Palmer – duo was penalised by the FIA for not slowing enough after Giovinazzi crash in Q1.
Verstappen finished only 19th fastest with 3.7 seconds behind after problems with the Renault engine.
QUALIFYING RESULTS FOR THE CHINESE GP
STARTING GRID
Grosjean i Palmer – kazne od 5 mjesta zbog nepoštivanja žutih zastava
