Valtteri Bottas outpaced Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to take pole position for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix as the Silver Arrows held off the Ferrari’s in an intense qualifying at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Bottas had the edge over Hamilton all weekend but the Finn narrowly held on by 0.023 seconds with his best effort of a 1:31.547 for a Silver Arrow front-row lockout and his seventh-career pole position.

Throughout qualifying, Ferrari were off the pace of their arch-rivals but the Scuderia came back at them on their final hot laps in Q3 with both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc coming within 0.320 seconds of the Mercedes F1 W10 EQ Power+ machines with both SF90’s lining up on the second row.

It was a Noah’s Ark effect also in the final six places down with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen qualifying fifth after a traffic inflicted final lap and ahead of team-mate Pierre Gasly who took sixth.

Both Mercedes, Ferrari’s and Verstappen will start tomorrow’s 1000th Grand Prix on the more durable yellow C3 medium compounds after running them in Q2 to post their quickest time.

Both Renault’s were next with Daniel Ricciardo out-qualifying team-mate Nico Hulkenberg for seventh by a close 0.004 seconds and the two Haas VF19’s of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean did not complete a lap in Q3 and round out the top ten.

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat was unable to push his Honda-powered STR14 into Q3 in the team’s 250th Grand Prix weekend and will start in 11th alongside Racing’s Points Sergio Perez who was 12th.

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen qualified thirteenth and failed to make the third qualifying stage for the first time since the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix.

McLaren for the first time this season could not get one of their MCL34’s into Q3 as both Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris took 14th and 15th on the grid for tomorrow’s race respectively.

The other Racing Point of Lance Stroll missed out on a Q2 appearance and will start in 16th place on the grid as both Williams FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica qualify in 17th and 18th.

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon were unable to take part in qualifying with the former having another power unit issue and the latter missing out due to his heavy crash in FP3. Both will start tomorrow’s race at the rear.

The Top Three

Pole Position – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “The lap was okay, not completely how I wanted but luckily enough. It was super close.”

Second – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “I kept pushing to the end, I’ve been struggling and fighting the car all weekend. It was eight tenths at one stage, the gap between us, so to be as close as we are, it’s great for the team,” explained Hamilton. “I’ll try and get him tomorrow.”

Third – Sebastian Vettel, #5, Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow, SF90: “Maybe there was a tiny bit more, but overall not enough to beat these guys today. They are bloody quick in the corners!”

Formula 1 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix 2019 Qualifying Classification

Q1 107% time – 1:39.144

Note – Albon didn’t take part in qualifying after crash in FP3. Giovinazzi failed to set a time in Q1. Both will race at the stewards’ discretion.