F1: Hamilton Clinches Pole Position For Chinese Grand Prix

Mercedes hang on to pole amid Ferrari challenge as Hamilton produces a "champion's lap" to edge out Vettel.

Updated: Saturday, April 8, 2017, 16:58 [IST]

Lewis Hamilton clinched his sixth successive pole position on Saturday, as he pulled out all stops to qualifying for the pole position at the 2017 Formula 1 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix after Ferrari had led the first two phases of the session.

Lewis Hamilton Clinches Pole Position In F1 Chinese Grand Prix

Mercedes hang on to pole amid Ferrari challenge as Hamilton produces a "champion's lap" to edge out Vettel. It was another close-fought battle between Mercedes and the Scuderia, with Vettel splitting the silver cars, only a tenth off Hamilton and just a thousandth of a second ahead of Valtteri Bottas in third.

Hamilton's devastating lap of 1 minute 31.678 seconds smashed Michael Schumacher's long-standing lap record at the track of 1:32.238 from 2004.

Vettel, who won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, was second, having trailed Hamilton by 0.186 seconds. Mercedes team's other driver, Bottas was just one thousandth of a second behind in third while Kimi Raikkonen was fourth in the other Ferrari.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo, Felipe Massa, Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez, Daniil Kvyat and Lance Stroll finished the top 10.

Raikkonen was disappointing in Q3 to take a distant fourth; however, the top two teams' edge over Red Bull - more than one second - was such that Raikkonen still finished a long way ahead of fifth-placed Daniel Ricciardo.

Vettel had topped third practice in another sign Ferrari have closed the gap to three-time reigning world champions Mercedes this season.

Rain has been forecasted for race day, and Vettel, whose only win in China came in 2009, added: "We will see tomorrow how important being on the front row is. If we could have been a bit quicker, it would have been even nicer. Maybe I chickened on the brakes slightly on the last lap.