Rosberg takes pole as Hamilton hits technical trouble

F1 Grand Prix, GP China, Shanghai International Ciruit

Nico Rosberg secured pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix, dominating qualifying and ultimately finding 5 tenths on both Ferrari's. Daniel Ricciardo secured a place on the front row as well, dropping down the Ferrari's who are set to start in third and fourth. Hamilton meanwhile had an ERS failure and will start from the back.

Following up on a dry final practice, Mercedes were out first to check the conditions of the track. The opted for intermediates, just like most other cars on their first laps. Hamilton soon mentioned the track was dry, even though he still opted to continue to set a lap.

Both Manor drivers opted to go out on the super soft immediately, but that soon proved tricky, as Wehrlein found himself in the barriers on the main straight after being caught while accelerating out of the final corner over a wet patch. The result was a parked Manor just across the finish line, and a lengthy red flag situation.

20 minutes later, the track was opened again, this time with everybody except the Mercedes, Force India and Ferrari drivers out on super soft tyres.

5 minutes from the end of Q1, only 8 drivers had already set a time, but the track was flourishing with action. Lewis Hamilton however soon found out an energy recovery issue had not been fixed, forcing him to return to the pits and being eliminated. The reigning World Champion faces a start from the back of the grid, dropping him behind Wehrlein due to his 5-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

As the checkered flag was waved, the battle was between Sauber and Renault to go through, with both Saubers eventually making it through, putting Magnussen 17th, ahead of Gutierrez, Palmer, Haryanto, Hamilton and of course Wehrlein.

Q2 turned out to be interesting as well, with Rosberg completing a single flying lap early on, uniquely opting for the soft tyres. That was good enough for the third fastest time of the session, and will enable him to start tomorrow's race on these tyres, contrary to all other top 10 drivers who will be on the super softs.

Towards the end of the session, as various drivers returned to the track to improve another time, Nico Hulkenberg saw his left front wheel roll off of his car through turn 3, forcing him to park his car immediately. With just 1:17 minutes left on the clock, the session was not restarted, simply because nobody could start a timed lap in that time.

This resulted in a top 9 shootout, as Hulkenberg in 10th was unable to get his car back. Eliminated in 11th place was Massa, ahead of Alonso, Button, Grosjean, Ericsson, Nasr. Massa particularly lamented the red flag as that cost him a shot at an improvement. The McLaren drivers were in the same boat, as both completed their first flyers on used tyres and the red flag prevented them from setting a time on brand new super softs.

In a tense final part of qualifying, Rosberg obviously reverted to the super softs. The German initially was a tenth slower than Raikkonen, but on the second series of laps, Rosberg found another 5 tenths. Ricciardo similarly found another few tenths to move up into second place on the grid, dropping Raikkonen down to third. Vettel slotted in to 4th, having opted for a single lap in the final session and making a mistake in the penultimate corner to lose out on a better grid slot.