Mumbai: It seems that the rain Gods had favoured Lewis Hamilton in a rather special way, by giving him the pole position in the Chinese Grand Prix held in Shanghai today. Mercedes, in the Chinese Grand Prix showed how they didn’t like to be second placed. In, a chilling race Lewis Hamilton (1:31.678) edged past Sebastian Vettel (1:31.864). The Mercedes team-mates dominating the podium with the 1st and the 3rd positions were facing a tough challenge from their opponents, Ferrari. Although, Ferrari was the fastest in the qualifying sessions but their decision to go with the soft tires rather than supersofts cost them their precious lead over their German rivals.
With this pole position, Hamilton now stands at a strong streak of 63 pole position. Not, only is he closing the gap with Michael Schumacher in terms of record number of pole positions (which stands at 68 by Schumacher), he also shattered Schumacher’s record time by 0.56 seconds.
Things didn’t go as planned for the Hass team as their driver Romain Grosjean spun his car at the final corner, turn 16. This led to a 10-minute delay in the race as the tire walls were being repaired. The committee has put Grosjean and Palmer under investigation for ignoring the yellow flags. McLaren is still facing trouble to get to the pole position, which is going to be a rough ride for them, keeping in mind their current position in the grid, that is 2nd last in the line-up, and their engine problems.
So, can the German duo go past their Italian rivals all the way till the end? Well, we just have to wait for the upcoming race. The line-up of the grid for the race will be Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas, Kimi Räikkönen, Daniel Ricciardo, Felipe Massa, Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez, Daiil Kvyat, Lance Stroll, Carlos Sainz, Kevin Magnussen, Fernando Alonso, Marcus Ericsson, Antonio Giovinazzi, Stoffel Vandoorne, Romain Grosjean, Jolyon Palmer, Max Verstappen and Esteban Ocon.
(With inputs from www.formula1.com)