Tense and dramatic as the Bahrain Grand Prix was, we've yet to see the race everyone has been hoping for in 2018: Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull going at it at the front of the field. Friday practice in China hinted that we might get just that at the third attempt.

As in Bahrain, it seems Mercedes and Ferrari are both in with a shot at pole position and, on race pace, Red Bull has the chance to join that mix. In fact, using every metric available on the outside, it looks incredibly close between the big three - with a tenth here or there likely to make all the difference.

The qualifying battle looks to favour Mercedes on paper. But while Lewis Hamilton was fastest overall during Friday practice, he was only seven thousandths of a second faster than Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

About Edd Straw

Edd Straw is a former Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Autosport, who is now Motorsport Network’s Digital Content Manager.

Originally from Guernsey in the Channel Islands, he joined Autosport in 2002 having graduated from Warwick University. He went on to cover a wide range of categories from club motorsport to the World Touring Car Championship and Le Mans to Formula 3 before switching to F1 full-time at the 2008 French Grand Prix. He then became Autosport Magazine Editor in November 2014.

After becoming Editor-in-Chief of Autosport in June 2016, he took up his current wider Motorsport Network role in October the following year and continues to contribute as a writer, F1 correspondent and as host of The Autosport Podcast.

In his spare time, he was formerly a club racer whose abilities did not match his enthusiasm in a variety of categories ranging from Stock Hatch to the European Ferrari Challenge.