Hamilton rules out Alonso partnership

LEWIS Hamilton appears to have killed off any chance of a dream reunion with Fernando Alonso at Mercedes.

The triple world champion, who drove a stunning lap to take pole for this morning’s Chinese Grand Prix, has repeatedly said he would like to see Alonso challenging at the front of the grid in a three-way fight among the best drivers of his generation.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, the third member of that select band, was second quickest in qualifying, having won the opening race in Melbourne a fortnight ago. Only Alonso, struggling in an underpowered McLaren-Honda, is missing from the fray.

A possible remedy would be for Alonso to replace Valtteri Bottas, the Finn who joined Mercedes on a one-year deal following Nico Rosberg’s shock retirement five days after winning the world title.

But Hamilton said: ‘It (Alonso to Mercedes) is not going to happen. Valtteri is fantastic here at the team. He was very, very fast at the last race. He has obviously got a lot of potential and growth to come.

‘It is all about finding the right balance in the team and so far Valtteri has given that.’ Bottas has shown a decent turn of speed in the short time he has been at Mercedes and yesterday was third quickest, onethousandth of a second behind Vettel, who was nearly twotenths off Hamilton.

The Finn is less combustible than Alonso, whose year with Hamilton at McLaren in 2007 was rife with internal feuding.

However, the biggest impediment to the Spaniard moving to the Silver Arrows is his involvement in the Spygate scandal, when McLaren, then partnered by Mercedes, were fined $100million for being in possession of Ferrari’s entire technical data.

Alonso qualified 13th, three places ahead of team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne. ‘It was one of the best laps I’ve done in my life,’ he said.

‘The predictions were more pessimistic, especially after we couldn’t run on Friday due to the weather. In the end, 13th is a divine present.’