Formula 1 China, Qualifying.

There were plenty of stories and speculation in the F1 paddock this morning, but aside from the Red Bull saga, there was tyre talk. The soft and medium compounds brought here by Pirelli this weekend, the degradation was high. Teams were cornered, saving tyres meant that unfortunately there wasn’t much running to start with.

Qualifying expectations were high for Mercedes and Ferrari who have looked strong all weekend. Although Nico Rosberg suffered a hydraulic problem in final practice, the car was prepared and ready for the session.

Q1:
The first part of qualifying was very quiet to start with, no one wanted to be the first out on track. But eventually with almost half the session gone, Jules Bianchi headed out in the Marussia to the delight of the fans. It opened things up as others soon followed. Everyone was heading out on the soft tyres, as they were not the optimum tyre to run on for the race. Faster over a single lap but degradation was very high. The session was promising as expected for Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. Marussia did a respectable job too out qualifying rivals Caterham. But Esteban Gutierrez was out in the first session in a rather average performing Sauber.

Q1 Knockout Zone:
17: Bottas 18: Gutierrez 19:Bianchi 20:Chilton 21: Pic 22: Van Der Garde

Q2:
The second session started with Vettel on warn soft tyres, soon followed by Hulkenberg on the same. But once the session got going it was Ferrari who looked the strongest overall, the smoothness and handling of the car was quite sublime. The same couldn’t really be said for McLaren as they didn’t have the raw pace. But then towards the end of the session, Mark Webber pulled off the track with a fuel problem. With everything that’s gone on this weekend, you simply couldn’t make it up. He was told to save fuel, as he got out of the car, the speculation turned to the recent controversy. As the session ended Sergio Perez couldn’t do enough to make the top 10, both Force India’s were the same too, however Paul Di Resta performed well and out qualified teammate Adrian Sutil. But it was Mercedes and Ferrari who looked dominant once again, the standout performance came from Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo who finished 9th.

Q2 Knockout Zone:
11: Di Resta 12: Perez 13: Sutil 14: Webber 15: Maldonado 16: Vergne

Q3:
The final Qualifying session started with Vettel in the sole remaining Red Bull, but he was on soft tyres driving very slowly. He then abandoned his timed lap and came into the pits. This meant that if the other drivers chose not to run, he would be on pole as he’s gone over the start finish line. Fortunately for the fans, the other drivers did go out and we ended up with a scintillating final battle to the line. It was the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen who was first to set a time, a very strong 1:34.761. The Mercedes of Nico Rosberg was next, but he made a small mistake on the final corner by running wide which put him in second place. Teammate Lewis Hamilton drove the most spectacular lap to take provisional pole by almost 3 tenths. The Ferrari’s couldn’t match Hamilton as they finished with Alonso 3rd and Massa 5th. Grosjean finished 6th with Daniel Ricciardo 7th after a fantastic session for the Toro Rosso driver. There were only 7 cars who completed a qualifying time.

Qualifying News: After the fuel problem for Mark Webber, the FIA have excluded him from the results after failing to provide a fuel sample. He will start tomorrows race from the back of the grid.

Here is the confirmed grid line up for the 2013 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.

1: L Hamilton Mercedes 2: K Raikkonen Lotus 3: F Alonso Ferrari 4: N Rosberg Mercedes 5: F Massa Ferrari 6: R Grosjean Lotus 7: D Ricciardo Toro Rosso 8: J Button McLaren 9: S Vettel Red Bull 10: N Hulkenberg Sauber 11: P Di Resta Force India 12: S Perez McLaren 13: A Sutil Force India 14: P Maldonado Williams 15: J Vergne Toro Rosso 16: V Bottas Williams 17: E Gutierrez Sauber 18: J Bianchi Marussia 19: M Chilton Marussia 20: C Pic Caterham 21: G V D Garde Caterham DSQ: M Webber Red Bull

Join me on Twitter @TomWilkinsonF1 #TWF1 for all the live racing action from Shanghai, it’s set up to be a scintillating race. Read my full race report tomorrow, right here at Driving For Pleasure. Enjoy the Chinese Grand Prix.