Mercedes newcomer Vallteri Bottas says it's a "real shame" he missed out on the front row at the Chinese Grand Prix by such a tight margin.

The former Williams driver has qualified third and finished just 0.001 seconds behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who won the season opening Australian Grand Prix.

Bottas' Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton took pole position ahead of Vettel.

It's the second race weekend from two with the exact same qualification order, with Bottas yet to make the front row of the grid.

Speaking at the press conference after qualifying, the Finnish racer rued the fact that Vettel had managed to get between the Mercedes pair again by just a one thousandth of a second.

"A real shame he managed to get between us. That's a shame but again the race is tomorrow," he said.

"But we are starting as a team first and third, it's a good place to start. The weather can be anything really tomorrow. Lewis was strong today, Ferrari was strong and we were always expecting a close fight today on-track. I think it will be the same case tomorrow, but yeah, really thanks to the team again, we've done a great job in a short amount of time in practice today to get the car setup well. It was enjoyable to drive. Let's see what tomorrow brings."