Lewis Hamilton takes his third consecutive Pole Position in China

This morning in Shanghai, Lewis Hamilton gained his third consecutive Pole Position of the season and at the Shanghai circuit.

Qualifying was eagerly anticipated after Lewis Hamilton sweeped the timesheets in all of the practice sessions with the Ferrari drivers of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen looking very handy behind them and also the Williams drivers of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas looking to close the gap this weekend to their two rivals.

But it was Lewis Hamilton that topped the timesheets with a 1.35.782 to claim Pole Position for the Chinese Grand Prix ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg who finished the session in second place 0.042 seconds behind Hamilton but ahead of Sebastian Vettel in third place who was 0.905 seconds off Hamilton's pace.

Felipe Massa finished the session with a great lap after all his problems yesterday in Practice in fourth place ahead of his team mate Valtteri Bottas in fifth place who managed to get Williams' first top five start at the circuit since Ralf Schumacher in 2004, Kimi Raikkonen who ended the session in sixth place who had problems getting the power down in his final lap out of Turn 3 but remained ahead of Daniel Ricciardo who ended the session in seventh place.

Romain Grosjean ended the session in eighth place ahead of the two Sauber drivers of Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson who have both to have made some improvement so far this weekend who rounded off the top ten finishers.

Pastor Maldonado ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Daniil Kyvat to gain twelfth place ahead of Max Verstappen in thirteenth place and his team mate Carlos Sainz Jr who finished the session in fourteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Sergio Perez ended the session in fifteenth place ahead of his team mate Nico Hulkenberg in sixteenth place, Jenson Button in seventeenth place, Fernando Alonso in eighteenth place and ahead of the Manor F1 drivers of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi who rounded off the grid after making the 170% rule in qualifying today.

The classification of Qualifying for the Chinese GP is as follows:-

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.35.782
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 0.042s
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.905s
4. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.172s
5. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.361s
6. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1.450s
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1.758s
8. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 2.123s
9. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.285s
10. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.376s
11. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 1.38.134
12. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull-Renault, 1.38.209
13. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1.38.393
14. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.38.538
15. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.39.290
16. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.39.216
17. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.39.276
18. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1.39.280
19. Will Stevens, Manor-Marussia, 1.42.091
20. Roberto Merhi, Manor-Marussia, 1.42.842

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa