Rosberg dominant in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg is on the way to continue his winning line after he has won the pole position for the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix. Mercedes driver and championship leader were the fastest in the qualifying at Shanghai International Circuit while his teammate and reigning champion Lewis Hamilton will start from the back of the grid.

Wehrlein’s accident and Hamilton’s failure

After wet Free Practice 3, in which Sebastian Vettel was the fastest while both Mercedes cars stayed in the garage, the track was mostly dry for the qualifying session, driven by the old rules after the new format proved to be a complete fail.

Pascal Wehrlein’s Manor after accident

After just a couple of minutes, the session was red-flagged because an accident in which Pascal Wehrlein damaged his Manor car. The young German lost control after going over the wet patch and had a spin on the pit straight before hitting the barriers, but there wasn’t any significant damage on the car and the driver was unhurt.

It was a small accident but caused long pause during which the hosts tried to do some ’safety’ measures. Sadly, this was only the confirmation how Formula 1 became almost meaningless. After 25 minutes, qualifying was finally resumed but without Wehrlein.

Lewis Hamilton will start from the last position in Shanghai

Mercedes’ problems with Lewis Hamilton’s car continued. The reigning champion failed to set a time and was eliminated in Q1 and he will start from the back of the grid on Sunday. Rio Haryanto, Esteban Gutierrez and both Renault’s drivers Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen also were eliminated.

Rosberg dominant, Ricciardo surprises

In Q2, Nico Rosberg had an excellent start on soft tires, but later both Ferraris were faster but on the supersoft tires. A minute before the end of Q2, red flag again was shown after Nico Hulkenberg lost front left tire and he was out of Q3 despite being 10th at the moment. Both Saubers and McLarens also were eliminated, together with Romain Grosjean and Felipe Massa.

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari

So, we had only nine drivers in the last qualifying which had quite an unexpected outcome. The battle was very interesting until the last moment but at the end, Rosberg dominantly won pole position ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in Red Bull. The Australian drove excellent lap to finish ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel.