2012 Chinese F1 GP: Nico Rosberg flies to maiden pole position

Nico Rosberg took his maiden pole position with a flawless lap, that was half a second quicker than P2 time of Lewis Hamilton. McLaren driver will however start from P7 due to a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox; this will promote Michael Schumacher to second position, giving Mercedes GP their first one-two on the starting grid. Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi will start from P3 on second row followed by Kimi Raikkonen in first of the Lotus F1 cars, while Mark Webber in Red Bull will be on P6 between Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.  

The defending world champion, Sebastina Vettel, failed to make it to Q3 – evidently not as comfortable as his teammate with the 2012 car. Fernando Alonso qualified on P9 in his struggling Ferrari, once again outperforming his teammate, Massa, who is P12. Force India cars of di Resta and Hulkenberg will start from P15 and P16 respectively. Both HRT cars have qualified for the race with Narain taking the lost slot, as they comfortably managed to clock with 107 per cent of the first car in Q1.

Follow OnCars, as we bring you live updates from the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai – starting 12:30hrs IST.