Hamilton grabs pole in Shanghai

The Briton Hamilton, who has been struggling with an allergy and went home early from the track on Thursday, left it late in the final session to grab pole ahead of Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus, the winner last month in Australia.

In warm and dry conditions, the electric Hamilton, who was fastest in all three qualifying sessions, clocked a best time of one minute 34.484sec, compared to Raikkonen's 1:34.761. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was third-fastest.

Nico Rosberg, Hamilton's team-mate, whose win in Shanghai last year was his first victory, qualified in fourth, ahead of the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. The Brazilian will line up on the third row with Romain Grosjean of Lotus.

Surprise-package Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso and Jenson Button of McLaren rounded out the top eight.

But Red Bull's reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel could only qualify in ninth after he drove wide late on and failed to register a time in the final session. Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber was 10th on the grid.

Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber, whose strained relationship with the German has put both men in the spotlight, bowed out in only the second qualifying session after his Red Bull simply ground to a halt, waving to the crowd meekly.

He will start Sunday's race down in 14th.

"I've been healthy the last two weeks and then I came here and felt ill," said Hamilton, whose previous two outings for Mercedes since defecting from McLaren saw him qualify third in Australia and fourth in Malaysia.

The 28-year-old, the 2008 world champion, has reportedly been suffering a pollen allergy.

"Of course it worries you a bit, but I've been getting plenty of rest and this is the best day I've had for a few days now. Tomorrow should be even better."

Alonso, the two-time world champion, said: "I'm very happy. This weekend has been very good for us.

"The car felt competitive from Friday. The car responded well to the changes we made. Tomorrow, if everything goes well, we should be able to fight for the podium with both cars."

Outside the top-10 shootout, Force India's Adrian Sutil found it rough going, his team telling him over the radio in the first qualifying session that it "looks a bit of a struggle". He only qualified in 13th.

Another high-profile casualty in Q2 was McLaren's Sergio Perez, who has been battling all week for form and had to settle for 12th on the grid.