Rosberg on pole heads Hamilton - China GP 2012

Nico Rosberg will start his first-ever Formula One grand prix from the pole position slot after blitzing the field by half a second in Shanghai.

It only took Rosberg 110 starts, however, he won't be counting that number, rather he'll be cherishing the number one.

In a perfect lap to start Q3, Rosberg clocked a 1:35.121 to edge Lewis Hamilton by 0.505s.
But with Hamilton incurring a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change it will in fact be an all Mercedes front row as Michael Schumacher moves up from third to second.

Kamui Kobayashi was fourth quickest on Saturday and will therefore take the second row along with Kimi Raikkonen.

Jenson Button is up to fifth and will start with Hamilton alongside him.

The big surprise of qualifying was the downfall of Sebastian Vettel. Having claimed 15 pole positions last season alone, Vettel failed to make it into Q3, falling short as he qualified in 11th place.

Felipe Massa also didn't make it and will start P12 - that, though, was expected.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time          Gap   
 1.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m35.121s         
 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m35.626s  + 0.505
 3.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m35.691s  + 0.570
 4.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m35.784s  + 0.663
 5.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m35.898s  + 0.777
 6.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m36.191s  + 1.070
 7.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m36.290s  + 1.169
 8.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m36.524s  + 1.403
 9.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m36.622s  + 1.501
10.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        No time
Q2 cut-off time: 1m35.831s                                   Gap **
11.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m36.031s  + 0.331
12.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m36.255s  + 0.555
13.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m36.283s  + 0.583
14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m36.289s  + 0.589
15.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m36.317s  + 0.617
16.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m36.745s  + 1.045
17.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m36.956s  + 1.256
Q1 cut-off time: 1m36.933s                                    Gap *
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m37.714s  + 1.516
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m38.463s  + 2.265
20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m38.677s  + 2.479
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m39.282s  + 3.084
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m39.717s  + 3.519
23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m40.411s  + 4.213
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m41.000s  + 4.802

107% time: 1m42.931s

* Gap to quickest in Q1

** Gap to quickest in Q2