Hamilton roars to first pole for Mercedes

Shanghai: Lewis Hamilton roared to his first pole position for Mercedes in qualifying on Saturday for the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, as the warring Red Bulls had a day to forget.

Hamilton, who has been struggling with an allergy and went home early from the track on Thursday, left it late in the final session to grab pole ahead of Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton clocked a best time of one minute 34.484sec, compared to Raikkonen’s 1:34.761 and Alonso’s 1:34.788.

Nico Rosberg, Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate, whose win in Shanghai last year was his first grand prix victory, qualified in fourth, just ahead of the Ferrari of Felipe Massa.

Raikkonen’s team-mate Romain Grosjean, Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso and Jenson Button of McLaren rounded out the top eight.

Red Bull’s reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel could only qualify in ninth after he drove wide late on and failed to register a time in the final session. Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber was 10th.

Vettel-Webber rivalry

Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber, whose strained relationship with the German has put both men in the spotlight, bowed out in only the second qualifying session after his Red Bull simply ground to a halt, waving to the crowd meekly.

Vettel, the reigning three-time world champion, apologised after defying Red Bull team principal Christian Horner last month in Malaysia to snatch Webber’s lead and win in the most controversial of circumstances.

But he appeared to make an about-change on Thursday in Shanghai, ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, saying that he would do the same all over again if it meant winning. Besides, he argued, Webber didn’t deserve to win the race.

Horner was subjected to a barrage of questions on Friday as to how he hoped to foster a truce between a pair of individuals whose relationship, while never being too good, has now reached a new low. “Sebastian hasn’t achieved the success that he has in his career by being submissive,” said Horner, describing the Vettel-Webber rivalry as “healthy”.

“He saw an opportunity, he took it into his own hands, he’d saved a set of tyres from the previous day and he wanted that victory more than anything else. “I think he justified to himself that previous events that had taken place [between the two drivers] was part of his judgment on what he chose to do that day.”

Force India’s Adrian Sutil was also having problems, his team telling him over the radio in the first qualifying session that it “looks a bit of a struggle”. He also failed to make it into the top 10 and qualified 13th.

Another high-profile casualty in Q2 was McLaren’s Sergio Perez, who has been struggling all week for form.