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Pole ... Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen will start on the front row. Source: MARK RALSTON / AFP
Mercedes Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix after a cagey qualifying session on Saturday that set the stage for an intriguing start to Sunday's race.
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Hamilton's best time at the Shanghai International Circuit was 1 minute, 34.484 seconds, qualifying him a quarter of a second ahead of Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso will start third.
It was Hamilton's first pole with his new team after crossing over from McLaren, and he felt it was a statement to those who said he should not have moved.
"It's an incredible feeling - so happy to have our first pole for some time,'' Hamilton said. ``I'm just ecstatic really. The lap was great.
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"I can't answer (critics) with one result but, bit by bit, as we progress and improve, they will have to stand corrected.''
In a cat-and-mouse qualifying session, all runners restricted their time on the track to save sets of tyres for the race, with all of the top 10 having only one flying lap in the final stage of qualifying.
McLaren's Jenson Button and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel elected to do their flying lap on the harder of the two tyre compounds, sacrificing grid position so they could have a longer stint at the beginning of the race. Button qualified eighth and Vettel ninth.
Of the top three runners, it is likely Hamilton will have to pit first, as the Mercedes has quickly degraded the soft tyre throughout the race weekend, and his times are likely to start dropping after as few as two or three laps.
He was putting faith in his team in the decision to start on the softs.
"I have really good strategists and I just trust them and their decisions and stand by it,'' Hamilton said.
Red Bull's Mark Webber had a fuel pressure failure in the second sector of qualifying, coasting to a stop out on the circuit, leaving him in 14th.
It might yet get worse - the Australian will start from the back of the grid if there is not enough fuel in the car's tank to provide a sample to stewards.
"We'll have to see what the rules are,'' Webber said on his return to the garage.
"Double-whammy, maybe.''
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, last year's winner, qualified fourth, ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Lotus' Romain Grosjean.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso was surprisingly strong in qualifying seventh - one position off his career best - while Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg was tenth.
Raikkonen came up just short of his first pole position in five years, set when he was with Ferrari.
"Second is not too bad. It's the best I've achieved with the team,'' Raikkonen said.
The Finn won the season opener in Australia with one less pitstop than his rivals and, if he can nurse his tyres well again on Sunday, he will be hard to beat.
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