Nico Rosberg On Pole, Lewis Hamilton Last

 

Nico Rosberg took his first pole position of the season in China, where Lewis Hamilton hit unreliability problems and will start from last. The world champion failed to set a time during Q1 as Mercedes battled ERS problems on his hybrid power unit that left him down on power.

Hamilton was already set to take a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox, but now has a mammoth task on Sunday starting from 22nd. The one silver lining for the Mercedes driver is he has plenty of new tyres available for the race. Lewis Hamilton will start the Chinese GP at the back of the grid after mechanical problems hampered his qualifying

Starting from pole, Rosberg will have the advantage of starting on soft compound tyres after gambling on making it into Q3 on the slower tyres during Q2. He said “The pressure was on at the beginning of Q3 when Kimi did a good time, It is good that I am starting on the softs, I'm not sure what is planned after that, but I think the plan is not to use the supersofts”.

After team-mate Lewis Hamilton failed to make it out of Q1, Mercedes' Nico Rosberg secured pole. He will be joined on the front row by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, whose smile was even wider than normal after a shock result.

2016 Chinese GP Qualifying
Q3
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:35.402
2. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:35.917
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:35.972
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:36.246
5. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:36.296