Lewis Hamilton grabs his first pole on a Mercedes for the Chinese Grand Prix 

Lewis Hamilton took his first ever pole on with new team Mercedes and his 26th career pole in F1. Hamilton dominated by topping all three sessions of qualifying with just a single run in each session with soft tyres gambling for the pole.

Kimi Raikkonen on the Lotus managed to top ahead of Alonso´s Ferrari and Rosberg´s Mercedes.

Ferrari´s looked strong in Practice 2 and Practice 3 but had to give away pole to the Mercedes in Qualifying with Alonso 3rd and Massa qualifying 5th fastest ahead of the second Lotus of Grosjean.

Daniel Ricciardo on the Torros Rosso will start 7th and ahead of Jenson Button´s McLaren on a Medium compound in 8th.
With the increased tyre management required for the full race distance, teams had to gamble between qualifying position and tyres for the first stint of the race with Vettel, Button and Hulkenberg running the Q3 on the Medium compound with which they will start the race as the soft compounds are expected fade away within few laps.

World Champion Vettel will start 9th and with a free tyre choice for the race after aborting Q3 due to an off track excursion in the entry lap. Hulkenberg too aborted his Q3 for strategically starting with a free tyre choice for the race and will started 10th.

Mark Webber´s RedBull ran out of fuel in Q2 exit lap after clocking 14th but will start at the back of the field after failing provide fuel samples.

Provisional Grid

Note – Webber originally qualified 14th but moved to the back of the grid for failing to provide a one–litre fuel sample after qualifying