Nico Rosberg has taken pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix whilst Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton will start last after suffering an ERS failure during Q1.
The race in Shanghai marked the return to the traditional 2006-2015 qualifying knockout format, following two failed attempts with the elimination-style format in Australia and Bahrain.
Rosberg looked to be under threat from both Ferraris going into the pole position shootout but an impressive final lap put him five-tenths clear of second placed man Daniel Ricciardo as both Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel made mistakes on their fast laps.
In Q2, Rosberg opted to set his fastest time on the yellow marked soft tyres meaning he will be forced to start on them whereas the rest of the top 10 qualifiers will start on the supersofts – which are expected to degrade quickly.
Raikkonen and Vettel line-up third and fourth on the grid respectively ahead of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, who scored the team’s best qualifying result of the season. Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat was sixth ahead of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen. Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10.
To red flags interrupted Q1 and Q2. The first was caused by Pascal Wehrlein, who spun off on the main pit straight and was forced to stop his Manor Racing car. The second was due to Nico Hulkenberg’s front left wheel coming loose meaning the German could not take part in Q3.
The second red flag meant the likes of Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were unable to improve on their initial runs meaning they failed to progress into Q3.
Romain Grosjean, Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr also failed to make the pole position shootout.
Kevin Magnussen, Esteban Gutierrez, Jolyon Palmer and Rio Haryanto all failed to progress from Q1. Wehrlein will start 21st ahead of Hamilton in 22nd.
