Chinese GP 2014 – Qualifying – Results

Lewis Hamilton takes the pole for the Chinese Grand Prix.

With this result Lewis Hamilton becomes the best British qualifier in formula 1, surpassing Jim Clark’s record of pole positions.

Hamilton went quickest in the first and third sectors as he posted a 1:53.860, over a second faster than Rosberg and ultimately far quicker than anything anyone would manage. Behind him Ricciardo was unable to get within half a second of Hamilton but, notably, out-qualified Vettel with a blistering final lap. Rosberg may well have locked out the front row with Hamilton but he ran wide at Turn 14 on his penultimate run, before spinning out of the final corner at the end of his last flying lap.

Fernando Alonso took fifth, keeping him well placed to build on his impressive practice form in the race, but team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was the highest profile casualty of Q2 as he could only manage to come home in 11th, with Jenson Button also failing to make it into the final qualifying session. Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas ended a trend of Williams struggling in the wet this season by qualifying sixth and seventh respectively, while Nico Hulkenberg could only manage eighth. Team-mate Sergio Perez, who claimed a podium in Bahrain, was another who failed to emerge from Q2.

Pos.	Drivers	Teams	Time	Laps
01.	44 – Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas	1:53.860	21
02.	03 – Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:54.455	23
03.	01 – Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1:54.960	23
04.	06 – Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas	1:55.143	22
05.	14 – Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari	1:55.637	21
06.	19 – Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing	1:56.147	24
07.	77 – Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing	1:56.282	24
08.	27 – Nico Hulkenberg	Sahara Force India	1:56.366	23
09.	25 – Jean-Eric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	1:56.773	23
10.	08 – Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	1:57.079	22
11.	07 – Kimi Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	1:56.860	17
12.	22 – Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	1:56.963	17
13.	26 – Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso	1:57.289	18
14.	99 – Adrian Sutil	Sauber F1 Team	1:57.393	17
15.	20 – Kevin Magnussen	McLaren Mercedes	1:57.675	17
16.	11 – Sergio Perez	Sahara Force India	1:58.264	17
17.	21 – Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber F1 Team	1:58.988	10
18.	10 – Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham F1 Team	1:59.260	10
19.	17 – Jules Bianchi	Marussia F1 Team	1:59.326	10
20.	09 – Marcus Ericsson	Caterham F1 Team	2:00.646	10
21.	04 – Max Chilton	Marussia F1 Team	2:00.865	10
22.	13 – Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team	no time	0