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By: Geoff Creighton

Summary

Status: Stopped
Thanks for joining us for our coverage of practice and qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix. We'll be back tomorrow with live coverage of the race. Here's our full report on qualifying.
Chinese GP qualifying: Lewis Hamilton takes pole position
"I've not driven the wet tyre, so that's going to be fun," says Hamilton of the prospect of a wet race.
Vettel: "It was a nice session, I enjoyed it a lot. I was very happy with the lap I had, last corner I maybe lost a little bit and maybe chickened onto the brakes a bit too soon."
 
 
 
Hamilton also says that the start of his lap wasn't great, possibly because of tyre temperatures, but it got stronger as it went on.
Hamilton: "The Ferraris have looked so fast through practice this morning and through each qualifying session. We knew it was close and that we were going to have to pull out all of the stops."
 
 
That first pole since Singapore 2015 still eludes Vettel and Ferrari. But considering Vettel wasn't ever on the front row last year, second in both Australia and China isn't a bad start to 2017.
Raikkonen: “I’m still suffering like crazy with the understeer."
When Vettel was told about the gap to Hamilton, he seemed very surprised. After a few choice words, he said: "I didn't believe that, it was the perfect lap".
Hulkenberg's seventh place is the best qualifying performance for the revived Renault team. The last time a 'Renault' car started that high was Monza 2011.
Hamilton, Vettel and Bottas were covered by just 0.187s in Q3. That lays the foundations for what could be a great race tomorrow.
Bottas is being weighed, as per the regulations. He got within two-tenths of Hamilton, so that's an improvement on Australia.
Vettel is taking a long hard look at the front of the sidepods of the Mercedes.
This was the first time rookie Stroll has made it into Q3. He will start 10th.
That's the 75th Mercedes team pole position in F1.
Hamilton climbs onto the pitwall to wave to the crowd. There's plenty of Hamilton fans there to cheer him.
Hamilton is celebrating in parc ferme. Vettel climbs out of his Ferrari.
This is Hamilton's 63rd pole position in F1.
Q3 Times
1 Hamilton 1m31.678s
2 Vettel 1m31.864s
3 Bottas 1m31.865s
4 Raikkonen 1m32.140s
5 Ricciardo 1m33.033s
6 Massa 1m33.507s
7 Hulkenberg 1m33.580s
8 Perez 1m33.706s
9 Kvyat 1m33.719s
10 Stroll 1m34.220s
Ricciardo was best of the rest in fifth ahead of Massa, Hulkenberg, Perez, Kyvat, Stroll.
Raikkonen is fourth, 0.462s down.
Vettel reclaims second, 0.186s slower than Hamilton and pipping Bottas by just one thousandth of a second.
Bottas goes second, 0.187s down.
Hamilton improves to a 1m31.678s to take what should be pole position.
Vettel is a tenth down in sector two though.
Chequered flag.
Vettel only a couple of hundredths slower than Hamilton in sector one.
No oversteer for Hamilton in Turn 11 this time - much cleaner.
Hamilton fastest of all in sector 2, so this is going to be an improvement if he strings together the final sector.
Hamilton sets a personal best in sector one, as does Ricciardo.
Perez and Stroll are both now on what will be their sole Q3 laps.
"Temperatures look in a good place this time - you're doing a good job," Red Bull tells Ricciardo.
The other nine drivers have bolted on a set of fresh super-softs, so it should be a dramatic last couple of minutes of Q3.
Hulkenberg is unlikely to run again as he used his one set of fresh super-softs in the first run.
 
 

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