Hamilton 'thrilled' after grabbing pole

Having arrived in China facing a stewards' investigation into his driving behind the safety car at the Japanese Grand Prix, the world championship leader was only given the all-clear late on Friday evening.

And having headed into qualifying with Ferrari clear favourites to take pole position, Hamilton admitted he dug deep to get the front spot.

"This weekend has been a bit of a rollercoaster," he said. "It's been quite an emotional trip. I turned up after last weekend, which was a great weekend in Fuji, and came here nice and early.

"On Thursday I found out that I was going to be investigated for the way I was behaving in the race. I thought immediately that I was going to get a penalty for sure. But thankfully with the team support we pulled through it.

"Yesterday was a tough day of testing with that at the back of my mind, and it was not easy to forget about it with the possibility of points being taken away.

"But then I came here this morning still not having the pace of these two here (Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa) and Fernando. It was my first time here, so I kept chipping away and was thrilled to get the pole position, because going into qualifying I didn't have the pace of Fernando.

"I knew that if I worked at it and didn't put too much effort in I might be able to do it. So I am really, really happy."

Hamilton made the choice of doing his first new tyre run in the final session on the harder compound of tyres, before switching to the softer set for what would be his pole lap.

Speaking about that decision, Hamilton said: "I was quite confident that we would have the pace of the Ferraris, but generally in the high speed corners they seem to be quicker.

"I think over one lap our pace is as good, if not a little bit better, and perhaps during the race they use the tyres better and are maybe a bit more consistent.

"I didn't know which option was best. I did the first run on the harder tyres and thought let's go for it - risk it for the biscuit, as my dad says. And the car was good after that."