After the Malaysia grand prix last week, the F1 garages headed north to China for the Shanghai grand prix. All 24 cars will start tomorrow's race but there was a huge shock in Q1. It was the usual six plus one to exit in Q1 with Hispania again propping up the rest with Liuzzi out qualifying Karthikeyan. Again Lotus out qualified Vigrin with Glock 22nd, D'Ambrosio 21st, Trulli 20th and Kovalainen 19th. However the other driver to miss out on Q2 was the surprise Mark Webber who is still having problems with his Red Bull car, the other surprise may have been that Mercedes' Rosberg was fastest in Q1.
Q2 also had fantastic drama, with just over two minutes remaining Petrov had secured a place Q3 but lost his engine and had to stop the car in the middle of the track. This caused a red flag until the car was removed and put huge pressure on the remaining cars to progress. Petrov's teammate at Renault, Heidfeld, was yet to complete a time and suffered the price by getting stuck in traffic. He qualifies sixteenth, just ahead of Williams' Maldonado. Maldonado's teammate Barrichello starts fifteenth with former Ferrari teammate Schumacher just ahead of him. The Saubers line up twelfth and thirteenth with Perez doing better, the final driver to fall in Q2 was Force India's Sutil.
The top ten shoot-out of Q3 was cut to a top nine with Petrov automatically qualifying in tenth place. The Toro Rosso's looked extremely good with Alguersuari starting seventh and Buemi ninth, birthday boy Di Resta provides the meat in the sandwich as he continues to impress in his debut season. The Ferrari's will start side by side in fifth and sixth with Alonso out qualifying Massa. With Webber way down the order, Rosberg took full advantage by getting fourth place which could have arguably been Webber's. But McLaren were out done yet again by Vettel's Red Bull and the reigning champion makes it three poles from three with Button in second and Hamilton third.
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