After going fastest in Friday's second practice session Lewis Hamilton once again looks assured as he outperforms McLaren team-mate Jenson Button to finish second in the final practice session
There is a lot of secrecy in Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull garage as the team remove debris or a stone from his left-front wheel, while making sure it has not done any damage
Button battles in the tight top-four group in the final practice session as the Red Bulls and McLarens dominate the top positions in China
A Renault in the gravel: Vitaly Petrov is unable to keep hold of his car as he clips the astroturf on the final corner and smashes into the wall - fortunately the Russian driver walks away unhurt
Mercedes' Michael Schumacher and team-mate Nico Rosberg are left battling for sixth and seventh positions with the seven-time world champion having to settle for a finish just behind his fellow German
Red Bull's Mark Webber trades fastest laps with team-mate Vettel and rival Hamilton before the Australian takes top spot in practice by the smallest of margins - he will take that in qualifying
Hamilton maintains his good practice pace in the early stages of qualifying, registering the fastest times in both the first and second qualifying sessions. But the McLaren driver suffers a loss of pace in the top-10 shoot-out
Webber takes advantage of Hamilton's loss of pace and registers a scintillating lap time of one minute 34.806secs in the final few minutes - but Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Vettel are still out on their flying laps
Alonso crosses the line just after Webber, but the Spaniard narrowly fails to beat his friend, missing out on what is at that time pole position by just 0.107secs
Not far behind him, Vettel is absolutely flying and is informed by Red Bull principal Christian Horner he is fastest in sector one before crossing the finish line in one minute 34.558secs to claim his third pole of the season
The 22-year-old is delighted to maintain Red Bull's 100% record at the front of the grid for the 2010 season - and reminds the watching spectators, viewers and press exactly which position he will start the race from
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso takes third place to complete the front three - the same trio who headed last year's race, won by Vettel
But Michael Schumacher's comeback season continues to falter as he narrowly scrapes into the top-10 shootout by 0.03 seconds before finishing in ninth place, some 0.723secs off Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg
Meanwhile, Webber cannot resist a peek into the cockpit of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren as the top three head for the post-qualifying press conference
What are these?
Print Sponsor
E-mail this to a friend 
Bookmark with:
What are these?