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At his 111th
grand prix, Nico Rosberg has claimed his first career pole position, and the
first pole for Mercedes since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix, which came
courtesy of Juan Manuel Fangio. Rosberg set a time of 1m35.121s: the
quickest lap of the weekend so far by some margin.
Rosberg’s team mate, Michael Schumacher, will line up alongside him on the
grid tomorrow, both having used the Pirelli P Zero Yellow soft tyres to good
effect. Rosberg was fastest by half a second, having made the most of the
rear tyres in particular to ensure that he had the right amount of traction
– one of the key areas in Shanghai – to set a dominant pole time.
Rosberg completed only one run during the final qualifying session, giving
himself an extra set of soft tyres for tomorrow’s race. All three qualifying
sessions were extremely competitive: the top 17 in qualifying one were
covered by just 0.8 seconds, while just 0.3 seconds separated the top 10 at
the end of qualifying two.
The final top 10 all started the last session on the P Zero Yellow soft
tyre, with the Mercedes line-up of Rosberg and Schumacher, plus McLaren’s
Lewis Hamilton and Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen completing one early run,
while the six other drivers all came out
later in the session. Lewis Hamilton was the only driver to complete two
runs, but despite qualifying second he will start in seventh, as the result
of a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.
During the first qualifying session, held in dry conditions with 21 degrees
centigrade ambient temperature, a higher number of competitors than usual
switched to the soft tyres at the end, including McLaren’s Jenson Button –
who did one lap to put a heat cycle through the yellow compound – and both
Ferrari drivers. The driver to go quickest during qualifying one was Sergio
Perez, one of the stars of the Malaysian Grand Prix, on the soft tyre.
The two Sauber's were also the first cars to come out in the second session
on the soft tyre, which was the default choice throughout the session for
all the runners. The biggest surprise was the elimination of Red Bull’s
Sebastian Vettel, who has started from pole at the last three Chinese Grands
Prix. ---The German driver will start from 11th on the grid tomorrow, which
means that he has the choice of which tyre he will be able to begin the race
on and also some extra sets of the soft compound – as does Lotus driver
Romain Grosjean, who did not set a time in qualifying three.
The final free practice session was held this morning in dry conditions,
with Hamilton setting a fastest time of 1m35.940s during a qualifying
simulation, using the P Zero Yellow soft tyre ahead of his team mate Button.
Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi claimed his best-ever qualifying position in fourth
(which will become third due to Hamilton’s penalty) while 2007 champion Kimi
Raikkonen will now line up fourth on the grid tomorrow: his best start since
returning to Formula One this year.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “We’d like to
congratulate Nico Rosberg and Mercedes on their achievements today. The way
that Nico, Michael and the Mercedes used the tyres was superb. The small
gaps between the drivers during the first two sessions showed the tight
level of competition that we can expect tomorrow, with the difference
between the two compounds still expected to be between 0.6-0.8 seconds per
lap and two to three pit stops expected per car. Once more, the Sauber team
did an excellent job with the tyres, and fourth-fastest time in qualifying
for Kamui certainly reflects that. Tyre degradation in China is
traditionally quite high: the teams were clearly trying to save tyres where
they could today and tyre strategy is clearly going to be crucial. There is
only a low probability of rain expected tomorrow, but the track could be a
bit damp in the morning, so we might see some humid conditions at the very
start of the race.”
Tyres used by the top ten qualifiers:
Rosberg - Soft
Hamilton - Soft
Schumacher - Soft
Kobayashi - Soft
Raikkonen - Soft
Button - Soft
Webber - Soft
Perez - Soft
Alonso - Soft
Grosjean - no time set |
