The 2015 Chinese Grand Prix will be held on Sunday, April 12, at 1:30 a.m. ET. The Shanghai GP will be shown on NBC Sports this Sunday morning but for race fans that will are unable to watch it on TV at the time, be sure to watch the race via live stream online by signing up for NBC Sports LiveExtra here.
Ferrari may have won at Malaysia, but Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton is doing everything he can to make sure it doesn't happen again. Hamilton will start from pole on Sunday's Shanghai Grand Prix 2015. Teammate Nico Rosberg locks out the front row for Mercedes.
Lewis Hamilton demonstrated his pace when he set the fastest times through all three practice sessions over the week. Following the strong rehearsals, Hamilton put down a 1:35.782 when it was finally showtime at Q3. A frustrated Rosberg qualified only 0.04 seconds behind.
“It's only four-hundredths, it's nothing, so I am frustrated because it's so close,” said Nico Rosberg after the Q3 session. “Of course, I really wanted to have pole today [and] it's just four-hundredths, which makes it more annoying.” “I'm still confident for tomorrow,” Rosberg insisted. “I've focused on race pace with my set-up and I know that tyres will be the decisive factor tomorrow, so I will be aiming to put a lot of pressure on Lewis....”
While Sebastian Vettel's third place qualifying suggests that Scuderia Ferrari is in attacking distance, the German driver's fastest lap was almost a full second slower than Hamilton. In fact, it looks like Ferrari may be busy checking their mirrors for Williams than chasing down Mercedes at the front. Williams duo Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas managed to qualify fourth and fifth, respectively, to split Vettel from his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen. The Finnish Ferrari driver qualified sixth and was six tenths slower than Vettel.
“I'm happy with today I guess,” said Vettel. “It was a different strategy we had in Q3, going only once on a used set [of tyres] and these guys were a little quicker than we expected to be honest. But I think we got everything right and P3 was our maximum today.
“We knew it would be tough in qualifying. Q2 looked quite promising, but Q3 was a bit more what we saw in practice, so quite a large gap. But we are fairly happy to make sure we are right behind them. Obviously we want to close the gap, and maybe tomorrow we are a bit closer, but right now we can be reasonably happy.”
The first of the Renault-powered cars is Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, who fended off an impressively competitive Lotus driven by Romain Grosjean to qualify seventh. Finally, Sauber's Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson both successfully qualify in the final two spots of the Top 10.
The 2015 Chinese Grand Prix will be hold on Sunday, April 12, at 1:30 a.m. ET. The Shanghai GP will be shown on NBC Sports this Sunday morning but for race fans that will are unable to watch it on TV at the time, be sure to watch the race via live stream online by signing up for NBC Sports LiveExtra here.
1. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 35.782s
2. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 35.824s
3. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 36.687s
4. Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes 1m 36.954s
5. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes 1m 37.143s
6. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 37.232s
7. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-Renault 1m 37.540s
8. Romain Grosjean FRA Lotus-Mercedes 1m 37.905s
9. Felipe Nasr BRZ Sauber-Ferrari 1m 38.067s
10. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari 1m 38.158s
11. Pastor Maldonado VEN Lotus-Mercedes 1m 38.134s
12. Daniil Kvyat RUS Red Bull-Renault 1m 38.209s
13. Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso-Renault 1m 38.393s
14. Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Renault 1m 38.538s
15. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes 1m 39.290s
16. Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes 1m 39.216s
17. Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda 1m 39.276s
18. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1m 39.280s
19. Will Stevens GBR Manor Marussia-Ferrari 1m 42.091s
20. Roberto Merhi ESP Manor Marussia-Ferrari 1m 42.842s
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