Valtteri Bottas admits it was "a real shame" to see Sebastian Vettel prevent him from completing a Mercedes lockout of the front row in China by just 0.001s -- the equivalent of roughly 5.9 centimetres of the Shanghai circuit.
As at the opening Australian Grand Prix, Mercedes came to life in qualifying in China after Ferrari topped FP3. Bottas was unable to get close enough to challenge Lewis Hamilton's pole time late on but did finish within 0.187s of his teammate, only to see Vettel jump ahead by an agonisingly short margin at the end of Q3.
Bottas was disappointed to let a Ferrari get on the front row.