text: Lewis Hamilton's love of the Shanghai International Circuit continues to show no bounds as the reigning Formula One champion again claimed pole position for the race. Hamilton now has a record five poles to his name at the track, and three in succession, to take his tally to 41 overall in his career. The 30-year-old Briton ultimately finished just 0.042secs ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to give the team another front-row lock out. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, a surprise winner last time out in Malaysia, will start third, albeit down by nine tenths of a second on Hamilton. Now click here to read the full qualifying report. Host commentator . Thank you for joining us this morning and be sure to return tomorrow for our coverage of Sunday’s race. 1 Hamilton; 2 Rosberg; 3 Vettel; 4 Massa; 5 Bottas; 6 Raikkonen; 7 Ricciardo; 8 Grosjean; 9 Nasr; 10 Ericsson . ‘Oh come on, guys’, Rosberg exasperates after missing out on pole by 0.042secs. Hamilton fails to improve on his time, but it doesn’t matter as Rosberg can’t beat his lap. It is Hamilton’s pole. Back on track and all 10 drivers are out for their final runs and they’re all on fresh tyres. Here we go… . Meanwhile... Vettel crosses the line to go fourth fastest as he splits the Williams pair of Massa and Bottas. We’ve got four minutes to run. The Mercedes pair are so much quicker than the rest of the field here. Raikkonen is the first of the Ferrari drivers to post a time and he is the best part of two seconds slower than Hamilton on a used set of option tyres. And Hamilton crosses the line with a 1:35.782. Wow. What can Rosberg do? The Mercedes man is 0.280secs slower than his team-mate. Bottas is the first driver to post a competitive lap, and he crosses the start-finish line with a 1:37.903… but it is Hamilton up next. We’ll see two runs from each driver and Hamilton is the first of the Mercedes pair to take to the track. So, we’re already underway with the final session to determine the top 10… surely, Lewis Hamilton won’t be stopped in his quest for a third straight pole this year? So, surprisingly both Toro Rossos fail to make the top-10 shootout with Verstappen and Sainz to start 13th and 14th tomorrow. Hamilton remains the quickest man on the track. So, we’re in the last minute of Q2 and Massa, Ericsson, Nasr and Perez are facing the drop. Vettel crosses the line to go faster than Raikkonen,  but he is half-a-second off Hamilton’s mighty lap. Raikkonen goes third-fastest with a 1:37.1, but the Finn is seven tenths slower than Hamilton… what can Vettel do in the sister Ferrari? Neither Ferrari driver are yet to post a time, so the best of the rest behind the Mercedes pair is currently the Lotus of Romain Grosjean, 1.6 seconds slower than Hamilton. That really is a stunning time from the world champion. Rosberg follows Hamilton across the line, but he is three tenths slower than his Mercedes team-mate. The Briton really appears to be a class above his Mercedes team-mate this weekend. Valtteri Bottas leads the way until Hamilton posts a 1:36.423 with his first run of the afternoon on the soft-option tyre. He then reports that his seat was getting really warm on that lap; a problem he mentioned during practice this morning. The second session is underway in Shanghai to determine which drivers will make it through to the top-10 shootout. That’s quite a big shock to see McLaren on the penultimate row again. Button, Alonso and the team have been speaking with plenty of optimism this weekend, but they will start tomorrow’s race only 17th and 18th. So, the McLaren drivers do not make it out of Q1 and Button and Alonso will start on the penultimate row for tomorrow's Chinese Grand Prix. But as I write that, Vettel goes fastest with a 1:37.502. Carlos Sainz, Pastor Maldonado, Romain Grosjean, Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi occupy the drop zone with a minute to go… . Raikkonen is back on track, on the softs, and it is the Finn’s turn to top the timesheets as he goes some two tenths faster than Bottas. Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa are both on the option tyres for their first timed runs of the afternoon. Bottas goes fastest with a 1:38.014 as Massa slots into third. Button, also on the soft compound, is faster than Alonso by four tenths, and he slots his McLaren into P7. The Briton comes over the radio to complain that the ‘rears are overheating’. Alonso is already donning the soft compound tyre. He comes across plenty of traffic on his fast lap, but still manages to go eighth… for now. So, with 10 minutes to go, Hamilton leads the way from Rosberg, Hulkenberg, Felipe Nasr, Vettel, Raikkonen and the ever-impressive Max Verstappen. Rosberg is the next driver to cross the line and he posts a lap of 1:38.496 which is some two tenths off his team-mate. Nico Hulkenberg, on the much faster softer compound tyre, pops his Force India into third. Here comes Hamilton, who looks at ease in his Mercedes, and the British driver is 1.6 seconds faster than Vettel. Ouch. Raikkonen crosses the line to post a 1:40.917, but he appeared to be struggling with plenty of understeer on that lap and Vettel crosses the line to go one second quicker than his Ferrari team-mate. Plenty of smoke as Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes is fired up, but there’s no problem with the world champion’s Silver Arrows as he takes to the circuit for Q1. Kimi Raikkonen meanwhile is the first big gun out on a hot lap… . Fernando Alonso failed to post a time in this morning's practice session, but the Spaniard is first out of the blocks as today's qualifying session gets underway. Security has been ramped up for this week’s race in China after a spectator managed to get on to the track during yesterday’s second practice session. The local man darted across the start-finish line before leaping over the pit wall and walking into the Ferrari garage. He is then alleged to have said: ‘I want a car. I’ve got a ticket.’ Rosberg has been challenged by Mercedes F1 chairman Niki Lauda to raise his game this weekend after being outclassed by Hamilton in both races so far this term. Here, the German is taking part in his traditional warm-up before hopping into his Mercedes for this afternoon’s qualifying session. That said, Mercedes, and Lewis Hamilton in particular, appear to be back to their ominous best in Shanghai. Hamilton has been fastest in all three practice sessions this weekend at a track where he has already won on three occasions and was the pole-sitter here in 2013 and again last year. The 30-year-old posted a time of one minute 37.615secs, finishing 0.226secs quicker than team-mate Rosberg. Fresh from his win in Sepang, Vettel was the best of the rest, albeit some seven tenths down on Hamilton’s best lap. Good morning and welcome to our coverage of today’s qualifying session for the Chinese Grand Prix. After Lewis Hamilton led Nico Rosberg home in a Mercedes one-two at the curtain raiser in Melbourne, we were told a year of domination from the Silver Arrows loomed. But how wrong they  were. Sebastian Vettel, in his Ferrari, upset the odds to roar to victory in Malaysia to blow the race for the championship back open and give Mercedes food-for-thought ahead of this week’s Chinese Grand Prix and for the remainder of the campaign.
target: Lewis Hamilton claimed his third straight pole position of the season .
  Nico Rosberg was just 0.042secs slower than his Mercedes team-mate .
  German says: 'Oh, come on, guys,' when told he is slower than Hamilton .
  Sebastian Vettel will start third for Ferrari with Felipe Massa fourth .
  McLaren endured another difficult day with Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso only 17th and 18th on the grid for Sunday's race .