Team McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen will start tomorrow's Chinese Grand Prix from the third row of the grid after putting in a strong fifth placed lap time around the wet and slippery Shanghai circuit this afternoon. The young Finn, who is the only driver to finish both previously contested Chinese GP’s on the podium, lost his right mirror during the session, but thankfully this didn’t really hinder his performance.

"It was a bit of a lottery in qualifying as it was really wet and slippery on track,” Kimi said. “However we did what we could and fifth is not too bad considering that I had traffic in the final corner which cost me a few tenths. The interesting thing will be to see what the weather will do tomorrow. I lost my mirror during the final qualifying session but didn't notice it, and it had no effect. Now we will see what happens in the race."

Meanwhile, teammate Pedro de la Rosa will line up right behind him on row four after recording the seventh best time of 1m45.877. The Spaniard had a tough time keeping his MP4-21 on the slippery Chinese track, as well as a near miss situation, but by the time the chequered flag fell, he was happy with the result….

 "A very eventful qualifying where I was constantly battling to stay on track, and had a lot of near spins,” he explained. “At the start of my flying lap when my Michelin tyres were at their hottest and had the most grip I was blocked by a car exiting the pitlane. I had to run wide to avoid a collision, and it was about three corners before I was able to get past by which point my tyres had cooled off. However in general I'm happy with the performance of our car and the Michelin tyres which is why we were consistent timing wise throughout qualifying, which is always encouraging."

"The wet weather and a bit of on-track Shanghai traffic affected today's qualifying. However from grid positions five and seven anything is possible. The car and our Michelin tyres are working well, and we look forward to tomorrow,” added Ron Dennis.

"These were extremely difficult conditions today which saw many drivers being caught out. With grid positions on row three and four we have a decent basis for tomorrow's race," said Norbert Haug.