F1 2017: Hamilton bests Vettel for pole at Chinese Grand Prix

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton will be starting the Chinese GP from pole as he beat Ferrari’s Sebastien Vettel by almost two-tenths of a second with a lap time of 1:31.678 during the qualifying session. Vettel will be placed between the Mercedes of Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas - who finished the session third, and was just 0.001s off Vettel’s time!

Unlike the season-opener in Australia, where Hamilton was beaten by Sebastien Vettel, the Brit will be looking forward to converting his pole into a win at Shanghai tomorrow. However, with Ferrari’s newfound pace in this season so far, the Chinese GP promises to be anything but straightforward. Also, while the top three are evenly matched, Kimi Raikkonen (fourth) is not too far behind in terms of pace – he was only two-tenths slower than Bottas in qualifying.

As for the rest of the pack, Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull qualified fifth, but he was nearly a second slower than Raikkonen. He will be joined by Williams' Felipe Massa in sixth on the grid. Nico Hulkenberg is placed seventh ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez in eighth. Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat and Williams’ Lance Stroll complete the top 10.

McLaren continues to struggle as Fernando Alonso could only manage to bag 13th place on the grid. The biggest surprise, however, was Max Verstappen today. Owing to a technical glitch in his car, Verstappen couldn’t make it to Q2, thereby, finishing 19th on the grid for the race.