Chinese Grand Prix qualifying: Hamilton takes pole for Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton has taken his maiden pole for Mercedes in the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso.

Lewis Hamilton has grabbed his first pole position for Mercedes for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix, with team mate Nico Rosberg in fourth putting second place Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus and third place Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari in a Mercedes sandwich.

Felipe Massa takes fifth in the second Ferrari and Grosjean sixth in the second Lotus with the Toro Rosso of Ricciardo in seventh, but it’s behind that the things get more interesting, especially in a race context.

Behind the leading seven are Jenson Button in the McLaren and Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull, but both are on different strategies to the rest of the leaders and will start tomorrow’s race on the medium tyres they used for final qualifying instead of the soft tyres.

That strategy was a disadvantage in qualifying – the softs are grippier – but could prove a shrewd move in the opening sector of the race when Button and Vettel will be able to go far further before they have to pit for tyres than the cars in front. It’ll be interesting to see how that pans out.

It’ll also be interesting to see how Mark Webber does in his Red Bull, starting from the pit lane after being disqualified for running out of fuel in qualifying.

As a result, he will start from the pit lane (as team mate Vettel did in Abu Dhabi last year, when he finished third) but will be able to change his setup and tyre choice ahead of the race.

Promises to be an interesting race.