Shanghai, 17 April

Fernando Alonso is in confident mood after he secured a place on the second row of the grid, with a fine drive to third in qualifying this afternoon, for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix. The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro man felt he got the most out of the F10 in qualifying trim and is now looking forward to turning his good grid position into at least an equally good result in the race. His team-mate Felipe Massa faces a harder challenge, after an error at the final corner cost him a few tenths. It means the Brazilian will start from the inside of the fourth row, in seventh place.



If it is a dry race in China, then the Ferrari duo will be hoping to make the most of the fact that, so far this season, the F10 has been more competitive over a race distance than it is in the Saturday afternoon sprint to the grid. If it rains, which is apparently highly probable, then although the situation will be far more uncertain, the men from Maranello can take heart from the fact that they went well in these conditions in Melbourne, two races ago.

Once again, Red Bull were the dominant force in qualifying, with Sebastian Vettel taking his third pole from four races, lapping just under three tenths faster than team-mate, Mark Webber. Fernando will have Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes for company on the second row, with the two English world champions, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton sharing row three. Felipe will start just ahead of eighth placed Robert Kubica in the Renault, while the top ten is completed by Michael Schumacher, ninth for Mercedes and Adrian Sutil tenth in the Force India. Tomorrow’s fourth round of the world championship gets underway at 15h00 local time tomorrow.