If Mercedes was concerned about the progress of chief rival Ferrari this Formula One season, its drivers didn’t show it during qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix. lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Hamilton edging his Mercedes teammate for pole position with a time of 1 minute, 35.782 seconds on Saturday.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was nearly a full second behind in third place. It was Hamilton’s third straight pole to start the new F1 season — and his fifth overall at the Shanghai International Circuit. “China continues to be a good place for me. I guess the circuit fits my style more than others and I enjoy driving it,” Hamilton said.
Indeed, Hamilton took the pole in his last race at the Malaysian Grand Prix two weeks ago, but it was a resurgent Vettel who was standing at the top of the podium at the end of the weekend.
Wolff was optimistic his team could maintain its advantage over Ferrari on the long straights at the Shanghai International Raceway on Sunday, but he acknowledged that having faster speed was not everything.
“We also know that the gaps shrink in race conditions and we saw in Malaysia that they could extend their tire life beyond what we could achieve, so we need to be careful of that tomorrow,” he said.
Rosberg was clearly dejected by finishing behind his teammate yet again, this time by just 0.04 seconds. When his team informed him over the radio how close he was to Hamilton, Rosberg replied with an exasperated “Oh, come on guys!”