Nico Rosberg took pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, while an ERS problem meant Lewis Hamilton failed to set a time and will start from last position.

Rosberg held a comfortable margin of 0.515s over Ricciardo after both Ferraris made mistakes at the Turn 14 hairpin and lost time. Kimi Raikkonen had looked in contention up until that point, while Sebastian Vettel opted for just one run in Q3 to save tyres for the race and had to settle for fourth.

Rosberg used the soft tyres to progress through Q2 and as a result will use the same compound at the start of Sunday's race while all the other drivers in the top ten will start on the super-softs. The strategy will allow him to run longer in the first stint, but Pirelli predicts a three-stop strategy of soft, soft, soft, super-soft will be no quicker than a strategy of super-soft, soft, soft, soft.

Valtteri Bottas took fifth position, just 0.050s off Vettel and a tenth of a second ahead of the second Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat. Sergio Perez took seventh on the grid ahead of the two Toro Rossos of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen.

A loose wheel on Nico Hulkenberg's Force India brought an early end to Q2 and means he qualified tenth. The wheel came off after exiting Turn 10 and bounced along the wall of the circuit before coming to a safe halt. An investigation into the incident will be conducted after qualifying and could result in a penalty. The loose wheel also brought out a red flag that inadvertently knocked out Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Romain Grosjean and the two Saubers before they had a chance at a second lap in Q2.

Hamilton's ERS issue meant he was down on power on his first lap out of the pits in Q1 before the team diagnosed the issue during a red flag period caused by Pascal Wehrlein spinning into the barriers on the pit straight. Wehrlein lost control of the Manor as he crossed a bump in a wet patch under one of the bridges crossing the track and made contact with the wall in front of the main grandstand. The accident itself was not too heavy, but race control ordered the pit straight be cleaned and dried. After 22 minutes of attempting to dry a rather large puddle the session restarted, albeit with damp patches remaining under both bridges. Kevin Magnussen went on to be knocked out along with Haas' Esteban Gutierrez, Renault team-mate Jolyon Plamer and Rio Haryanto. Wehrlein and Hamilton will start at the back of the field.

Source:
courtesy of ESPN

by Laurence Edmondson

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