Five things we learnt from Chinese Grand Prix qualifying

Mercedes remain F1’s speedsters

If anyone had wondered why Ferrari’s personnel had seemingly been on a three-line-whip since their arrival in Shanghai to downplay their chances of beating Mercedes on a regular basis just yet, the final qualifying timesheet should give them an emphatic answer. As not only did Mercedes regain their stranglehold on the front-row positions after Sebastian Vettel managed to split them in the rain of Sepang, but Lewis Hamilton’s pole position time was an eye-watering nine tenths of a second faster than the lead Ferrari.

“These guys were a bit quicker than we expected to be honest,” Vettel admitted as he sat to the right of Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in the third-place seat in the post-qualifying press conference.

It was after the German had surprisingly occupied the middle seat two weeks ago post-race in Malaysia that much of the detail surrounding the difference in outright pace between the W06 and SF15-T was briefly lost amid the understandable jubilation which greeted Ferrari’s welcome return to the winner’s circle. After all, just two weeks before that in Australia and Mercedes had claimed pole by a massive 1.4s margin from Williams and Ferrari.

While the Scuderia’s light-on-its-feet 2015 car means they can close down such a large single-lap deficit on race day, and may just do that on Sunday, that card is not always going to prove an ace at each and every circuit. The stopwatch doesn’t lie, and Mercedes remain in their own formula over a single lap.

Until that changes, the Silver Arrows are likely to continue hoarding pole positions – with the red-hot Hamilton, who now leads 3-0 in his Saturday duel with Rosberg following his 12-7 defeat last term, currently in the form to hog most of them.

Kimi in danger of becoming number two again

Now 3-0 down in qualifying, there is a real danger of Kimi Raikkonen becoming the number two driver once again at Ferrari. His return to the Scuderia saw him fall into Fernando Alonso’s shadow, with an embarrassing 3-16 qualifying and race deficit last year.

Ferrari were predicted to comfortably lock out the second row of the grid in China, but while Sebastian Vettel took third, Raikkonen found himself behind both Williams cars.

“We are happy with Seb’s position, a bit less so with Kimi’s. We had hoped for better,” admitted technical director James Allison. Given Allison's taciturn nature, that's about as strong a public criticism of a driver as he is likely to give.

Gone were the smiles of pre-season from Raikkonen’s face that lead to new team principal Maurizio Arrivabene joking that he thought his driver was sick. Gone were the more expansive - by his standards - answers the Finn had given the media in Australia and Malaysia. Instead it was a return to the monosyllabic driver, giving off a deflated and even demotivated persona.

In fairness, however, Kimi isn't hiding and admitted after the session that he needed to avoid getting into a rut where qualifying was concerned. "I'm disappointed [with] myself more than anything else to end up this way again. It's not a disaster, but it seems to have become a habit. I'd rather get rid of it." Raikkonen is already 28 points behind Vettel in the drivers’ championship and needs to arrest his slump as a matter of urgency. Otherwise he could find himself as the Ferrari support act once again.

No breakthrough yet for McLaren and Honda

The MP4-30 may have proved a “pleasure to drive” for Jenson Button during practice in China, but any joy the 2009 world champion or Fernando Alonso are extracting from the car’s favourable handling continues to be tempered by its lack of outright pace after another double Q1 exit was chalked up. At this rate McLaren will soon be handed season tickets for 17th and 18th positions on the grid after the eight-time constructors’ champions secured the lowly grid slots for the third straight race.

Although Alonso made mistakes on his final lap, the fact that he and fellow world champion Button finished just 0.004s apart in Q1 laptime suggests both men pretty much delivered what the Honda-powered car was capable of achieving. Top-12 positions in practice had appeared to offer more of course – although Button did, in fairness, suggest their Friday positions were false – and with only the Manors still behind them on the grid, Sky F1’s Damon Hill believes the progress that is being made isn’t nearly swift enough: “All the noises they have been making about being optimistic and ‘we are really making progress’, it has to be shown to be improving and at the moment it is not showing. There must be a reason for that.”

Given the Mercedes didn’t even take to the soft tyres in Q1, Martin Brundle labelled it a “shocker” that McLaren still finished two seconds behind the sport’s current benchmark. That said, while their grid slots may be static from event to event at the moment, McLaren are actually getting closer to progressing to the right side of that Q2 cut line.

In Australia their deficit to the ‘safety’ of 15th place was a full second, then in Malaysia it came down to six tenths, and now on Saturday they missed out by just 0.2s. So progress is definitely being made, and Q2 could finally be reached in just seven days’ time in Bahrain, but is it being made quite as quickly as it should be by a team and engine supplier of such pedigree?

Kvyat still a slow starter

Three-nil down in qualifying and seven tenths behind his team-mate this weekend, it has been a difficult start to life for Daniil Kvyat at Red Bull. However, it should be pointed out that Kvyat was in exactly the same position against Jean-Eric Vergne last year, but the Russian finished the season with a 12-7 advantage on Saturdays. Just to stress the sense of deja vu, Kvyat’s deficit to Vergne in China was also seven tenths in 2014.

Kvyat made a similarly slow start to life in GP3, only qualifying in the top six twice before Spa-Francorchamps and failing to win a race. But something changed during the summer break and after qualifying second in Beligum, Kvyat picked up his maiden win and would take dominant poles for the remainder of the season, converting them all into victories as he clinched the title.

So don't write him off yet. Far from telling us that Kvyat lacks the pace worthy of a Red Bull seat, the nascent 2015 season only seems to be confirming that Kvyat is a slow starter. The team’s public spat with Renault has at least taken some of the spotlight off him, but will he get enough time to come good before the pressure mounts from the team and fans?

Sauber’s Q3 double shows Ferrari’s gains

Unlike Carmen Jorda, Sauber may have not caught the world feed director’s eye, but both C34s participated in Q3 – the first time the Swiss team have achieved such a two-car feat since USA 2013. Any thoughts that their 14-point haul from Melbourne might prove a fluke have been put to bed by the C34’s performance since then, even if neither Nasr nor Ericsson ultimately scored in Malaysia.

Christian Horner’s exasperation with Renault's lack of progress back at the season opener was certainly heightened by the sight of Sauber, point-less stragglers in 2014, beating his Red Bull cars. The team chief suggested that, with Sauber's 2015 car bearing a close resemblance to the forgettable C33, the Swiss outfit could thank engine suppliers Ferrari for their sudden leap up the grid with the Italian marque having made substantial improvements to their power unit.

On a power-hungry track such as Shanghai, the sight of both Saubers qualifying in the top 10 certainly appears to have confirmed such an observation.

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