Friday’s practice sessions, when Hamilton narrowly pipped Vettel to top the timesheets, had raised the prospect of a close fight for pole between Mercedes and Red Bull, but that highly-anticipated battle failed to materialise as Red Bull seemed to have found some pace overnight to open up the margin to their rivals, albeit not to the same extent as in the last race in Singapore.

Sebastian Vettel acknowledges the crowd after securing pole position on Saturday. Pic/AFP