And that’s the END OF QUALIFYING! Nico Rosberg’s efforts are enough in the end – he’ll start tomorrow’s race in pole on the soft tyre. A mammoth effort from Daniel Ricciardo sees him outrace both Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel to go 2nd ahead of tomorrow’s race.
Valtteri Bottas looks to set a faster lap now and locks up a little bit. Bottas isn’t using the updated 2016 nose but the 2015 one instead. Bottas can’t better his time much.
Nico Rosberg meanwhile has a slow first sector – disappointing for him.
Ferrari back on top again! Kimi Raikkonen is on fire today - thankfully, not literally! He’s 1:35.972 ahead of Rosberg. Bottas is lagging now with both Red Bulls – Ricciardo and Kvyat – going P3 and P4 respectively behind Rosberg, who has pitted.
Rosberg sets top time for now – 1:36.11, with Carlos Sainz currently in P2 - Toro Rosso faster than Williams with 6 minutes of Qualifying to go.
Q3! Nico Rosberg’s out on track – in the absence of Lewis Hamilton, can he win pole position for Mercedes?
Meanwhile, the incident involving Nico Hulkenberg’s car is ‘under investigation’, say stewards – it’s likely Force India will cop a penalty for that incident.
Kimi Raikkonen leads Q2, with Vettel 0.065s behind. Session has ended.
Ferrari are now back on top... but the drama hasn’t ended! Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg sees his front left tyre completely roll off the car. Race is red flagged with a minute to go in Q2; that effectively ends the session – and qualifying for Massa, Alonso, Button, Grosjean, Ericsson and Nasr. It’s Massa who’ll suffer the most, as he was about to set a time to get up into the top 10 – where Hulkenberg has just about made the cut.
Red Bull now move up! Daniel Ricciardo goes second fastest 0.575s behind leader Rosberg, with teammate Daniil Kvyat only 0.2s behind him.
First lap of Q2 completed – but the more relevant of the two is Nico Rosberg, who sets 1:36.240, with Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson 4s behind him and teammate Felipe Nasr with a 6s gap. Initial target set by Rosberg, who won at Australia and Bahrain. Force India’s Sergio Perez has also set a time – just under a second behind Rosberg, with Jenson Button following, although the McLaren’s gap is significantly wider.
Rosberg is impressive – he’s set the time on a slower tyre on a cool track. He's pitted and looks clear to go to Q3.
Green flags for Q2 now, but drivers aren’t in a big rush to get onto the track; Ferrari will be happy, but the reigning champion not setting a time is the big shock. Can he claw his way back up from the absolute back of the grid?
Biggest news from today is still that Lewis Hamilton has been eliminated from Q1. He took on a 5-place grid penalty ahead of the race weekend for gearbox changes, and with ERS problems won’t be able to set a
And that’s the end of Q1! Haas’ Gutierrez, Manor’s Wehrlein, Kevin Magnussen, Esteban Gutierrez and Rio Haryanto are all eliminated. Ferrari on top, but both Saubers are in the top 16. Renault didn’t fare as well, sadly for the team.
Scuderia Ferrari fans will be happy today. After Kimi goes faster than Rosberg, Vettel goes faster than Kimi! The two are currently on top and followed by Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, who has looked good all weekend. Vettel has 1:37.001 with Kimi only 0.346s behind.
Nico Rosberg is out on track and sets the fastest time! He’s 1:37.669 and trailed by the McLaren-Hondas of Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari is now out on track, and he's faster than Rosberg in the first straight. Big problems for Lewis Hamilton who has an ERS problem. That’s also what he’s probably saying right now...
McLaren-Honda 1-2 right now! It’s Jenson Button who leads teammate Fernando Alonso – 1:38.324 and 1:38.451 respectively, so there’s not very much separating the two at the moment! Both on old softs at the moment, with Haas’ Romain Grosjean 1.2s behind leader Button.
Session commences! Drivers are back out on track to set times now. Circuit’s dry and Jenson Button is out on track! He’s won before – as has teammate Fernando Alonso. Button is on a new engine now. The track is dry, and Haas F1’s Esteban Gutierrez is out there on the softs and puts a time on the board – 1:40.262 for him, and now Fernando Alonso is out on softs too! He looks set to pip Gutierrez’ time.
RED FLAG: Pascal Wehrlein of Manor hits a puddle and spins out. He hits the wall in Q1 and that’s the end of his qualifying session. The session itself is halted for now; Wehrlein was on slicks on a wet circuit and crashed on the start-finish straight.
Rookie Wehrlein opened his DRS – unfortunately just at the wrong moment. That and the slick tyres and a damp track haven’t helped him, so he is the first eliminated. It’s his first Formula One season, so mistakes are natural.
LIGHTS OUT! Lewis Hamilton is out, as is Jenson Button. Manor rookie Rio Haryanto’s on track too, and he’s on softs. “Track is dry for now,” we hear.
Time to race! We’re back to the old qualifying format. The rain has stopped, but there’s a 30% chance of rain returning, say experts. Relatively dry racing conditions here; what tyre choices will teams make?
Ferrari looked strong in Practice 2 and 3 after Mercedes led first practice. Hamilton will have grid penalties today.
One hour to race time! Race commences at 12:30 p.m. IST, and it’s looking like we have a good fight on our hands – possibly a three-way battle with Mercedes, Ferrari and Williams. They’ll take heart from that given it’s founder Sir Frank Williams’ birthday today.
What happened in FP3:
We’re done with the final practice session at the Chinese Grand Prix and Scuderia Ferrari led the way today with Sebastian Vettel coming out on top. After setting the fastest time of FP2, teammate Kimi Raikkonen was one of the earliest out on track and set the fastest time early on. Compatriot Valtteri Bottas of Williams was first out on track - and set the second fastest time of the session.
The session was largely wet, but not flooded given a constant, yet not particularly heavy spit of rain, one that was expected ahead of today's qualifying. All drivers were on wets and intermediates given the conditions, which dried up slightly towards the end of the session.
Although both McLaren drivers – Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button – both went onto track today, neither set a time, choosing instead to get a feel for the track and conditions instead. Renault’s woes continued with another puncture today. After Kevin Magnussen’s suspension failure causing his left rear tyre to crumple, this time it was the turn of teammate Jolyon Palmer, who lost his rear right and went back into the box, prematurely ending his session.
Force India did well today, with Sergio Perez ending the session with the third fastest time behind Valtteri Bottas, who picked up on his earlier time.
The biggest surprise, however, was that Mercedes failed to set a time today. Both drivers went out on track - and were the two fastest in first practice – but did not finish a lap in this session. Hamilton, who won last year, has been dealt a blow; he won’t be on pole even if he does qualify top, with a 5-place grid penalty for gearbox changes.
As of now, it’s looking good for Ferrari, who have topped both FP2 and FP3. Both drivers are fond of the wet conditions, and Raikkonen has won the Chinese Grand Prix in similar conditions before.
If the team can overcome the reliability issues that plagued them in the previous races, there may be a strong title battle up ahead.
