Lewis Hamilton claimed his sixth consecutive pole position and will start the Chinese Grand Prix from the point of most advantage. The Brit put in a blistering lap to set a record-breaking time of 1:31.678.
He called the weekend so far "interesting", as today saw the majority of running due to the first two practice sessions being interrupted by weather complications.
"An interesting weekend so far. Today was a real challenge. We had to compile a lot of yesterday's testing into this morning and hope we'd found the right balance. The Ferraris have looked so fast. We knew it was going to be close and we had to pull out all the stops.
"I manage to chip away at it. The lap started off not as good as Q1 but it got better and better. I'm very very happy, super grateful to the effort the team has put in. It's more exciting than ever for me because we are really fighting these guys. That's what racing is all about and it pushes you on."
Tomorrow's race is expected to start in wet conditions which could mix things up, especially as Hamilton reiterated that he has not yet driven the wet tyre this season.
"Tomorrow is going to be an unusual day. I haven't driven a wet tyre this season so that's going to be fun. Ferrari has a very, very strong car and can step up in race pace so it will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings. It will be close between us that's for sure."
Fergal Walsh
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Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
f1fan0101
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Hopefully a close fight between Ham/Vet/Bot/Rai