Formula 1 2012 Chinese Grand Prix: Nico Rosberg Claims First Pole Position

Nico Rosberg will start on pole position for the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver set a time of 1:35.121 to claim his first ever pole position, more than half a second ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren.  But Michael Schumacher will start second after Hamilton takes his five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled change of gearbox—an all Mercedes (and German) front row.

Kamui Kobayashi will start third after putting in a blistering time for Sauber, and Kimi Raikkonen took fourth for Lotus.  Jenson Button starts fifth with Mark Webber in sixth.  Hamilton set the second-fastest time, but his penalty places him seventh.

Perhaps the biggest shock of the day was Sebastian Vettel missing out on Q3 for the first time since the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2009. 

The German was knocked out of the top 10 in the dying seconds of Q2, and though he was the last man over the line, he could not improve his position and will start 11th.

From 13th down, we have an unusual two-by-two lineup—the two Williams, Force Indias, Toro Rossos, Caterhams, Marussias and HRTs will start side by side.

Full times and positions from the Shanghai International Circuit:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:35.121
*02	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	1:35.626
03	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:35.691
04	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	1:35.784
05	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	1:35.898
06	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:36.191
07	Mark Webber	Red Bull	1:36.290
08	Sergio Perez	Sauber	1:36.524
09	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:36.622
10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	NO TIME
11 (Q2)	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:36.031
12	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:36.255
13	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1:36.283
14	Bruno Senna	Williams	1:36.289
15	Paul di Resta	Force India	1:36.317
16	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:36.745
17	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	1:36.956
18 (Q3)	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1:37.714
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	1:38.463
20	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	1:38.677
21	Timo Glock	Marussia	1:39.282
22	Charles Pic	Marussia	1:39.717
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	1:40.411
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	1:41.000

* Will start seventh after the five-place grid penalty

The race starts at 15:00 local time on Sunday. The Formula One website will convert it to your local time zone.