Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas.
Q1: Grosjean spun in the last corner and was about to hit the wall, but he was able to control it and go back to the pit lane. After the first timed laps were set, Vettel was ahead of Hamilton and Räikkönen. The drivers were not able to improve his times in their last laps after Giovinazzi wasn’t as lucky as Grosjean and hit the wall in the same corner where the Frenchman had previously spun. This left Vandoorne, Grosjean, Palmer, Verstappen and Ocon out of Q2.
Q2: Only 14 cars were on track for this session, as Giovinazzi‘s Sauber was not in a proper condition to take part. Räikkönen was fastest ahead of Vettel, Hamilton and Bottas. Sainz, Magnussen, Alonso, Ericsson and Giovinazzi were eliminated.
Q3: Hamilton was the first one out and he set a 1:31.9 with a small mistake in his lap. Nobody could beat him in the second attempt, since he improved 3 tenths. Vettel was 2nd, 0.186s behind and only 0.001s ahead of Bottas in 3rd. Räikkönen, Ricciardo, Massa, Hülkenberg, Pérez, Kvyat and Stroll completed the top 10.