Valtteri Bottas will start Formula One's 1000th world championship race from pole position after setting the fastest time on Saturday in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix. The Finn, who leads team-mate Lewis Hamilton by one point in the overall standings, set a time of one minute 31.547 seconds, 0.023 seconds faster than the Briton who completed a front-row lockout for Mercedes.

Ferrari had gone into the weekend as favourites after putting on a dominant display two weeks ago in Bahrain. But Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, on pole at the Sakhir desert track ahead of the German two weeks ago, had to settle for the second row of the grid with third and fourth.