The Championship leader, Nico Rosberg, got a new pole position for the Chinese GP. The German, who chose a different strategy for tomorrow’s race, qualified ahead of Ricciardo and Räikkönen.
Q1 started with a slightly wet track, especially two big puddles at the main straight. Pascal Wehrlein lost control of his Manor on a bump in the first puddle. The session was red flagged in a useless attempt of drying the track by the stewards. When the session was resumed, Lewis Hamilton had to bring the car back to the garage due to electronic issues which left him out of this qualifying session. The McLarens were the first one setting fast lap times, but other drivers improved them as the track got better. However, their times were good enough to make it through Q2. Magnussen, Gutiérrez, Palmer, Haryanto, Wehrlein and Hamilton were eliminated. Both Saubers made it through and Button set a time which put him up in 4th behind Bottas, Räikkönen and Vettel.
Nico Rosberg chose a different strategy for Q2 and set his best lap with the soft compound, which requires him to start the race with those same tyres tomorrow. A loose wheel on Hülkenberg‘s car caused a red flagged which ruined the second attempt of all drivers. This left out of Q3 Massa, Alonso, Button, Grosjean, Ericsson and Nasr.
Kimi Räikkönen was ahead of Rosberg on their first attempt on Q3, but he was unable to improve on his second timed lap, which left him 3rd. Vettel chose to only do one lap and made a mistake which left him 4th. Ricciardo managed to sneak into the first row, ahead of the Ferraris, 0,5s behind Rosberg. Bottas, Kvyat, Pérez, Sainz, Verstappen and Hülkenberg completed the top 10.
Result:
| Pos. | Car | Driver | Team |
| 1 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes AMG |
| 2 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing |
| 3 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari |
| 4 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari |
| 5 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams |
| 6 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull Racing |
| 7 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Force India |
| 8 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso |
| 9 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso |
| 10 | 27 | Nico Hülkenberg | Force India |
| 11 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams |
| 12 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren |
| 13 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren |
| 14 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas F1 Team |
| 15 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber |
| 16 | 12 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber |
| 17 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault Sport F1 Team |
| 18 | 21 | Esteban Gutiérrez | Haas F1 Team |
| 19 | 30 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault Sport F1 Team |
| 20 | 88 | Rio Haryanto | Manor F1 Team |
| 21 | 94 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor F1 Team |
| 22 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes AMG |