Nico Rosberg secures his first ever pole at 2012 Chinese Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
Mercedes AMG driver Nico Rosberg has finally secured his first ever pole in Formula 1 in the qualifying of 2012 Chinese Grand Prix held at Shanghai International Circuit on Saturday.
The German driver set the best time of 1 minute and 35.121 seconds in the qualifying at Shanghai and will start the race from the first place on the grid on Sunday.
Moreover, Rosberg benefited from the competitive advantage of the novel Mercedes DRS-activated F-duct in the straight of the track.
Rosberg was followed by Lewis Hamilton of McLaren who after securing consecutive poles in the first two races of the season, came second in the qualifying at the Chinese GP.
The Briton stayed ahead of Rosberg’s teammate, Michael Schumacher who set his best time of 1 minute and 35.691 seconds.
It will be important to mention that even though Hamilton set the second best time of 1 minute and 35.626 seconds, however, he has to face a five-place grid penalty as a result of which Schumacher will be at the second grid position in the race.
Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber-Ferrari set the fourth best time of 1 minute and 35.784 seconds. The Japanese driver was followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus who came fifth after setting the time of 1 minute and 35.898 seconds.
Hamilton’s teammate, Jenson Button of McLaren set the time of 1 minute and 36.191 seconds and came sixth after the qualifying at Shanghai. The British driver was followed by Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing who set his best time of 1 minute and 36.290 seconds.
The performance of the Australian driver was quite better than his teammate, Sebastian Vettel who could not make his way through into the Q3 and came 11thafter setting his best time of 1 minute 36.031 seconds.
Moreover, the double world champion ran his car with the older exhaust design in RB8 as the defending champions wanted to evaluate the performance of their car in order to explore its true potential for the races ahead.
Webber was followed by Sergio Perez of Sauber who came eighth after setting his best time of 1 minute and 36.524 seconds.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso with his best time of 1 minute and 36.622 seconds managed to secure ninth best finish at the qualifying. The Spaniard stayed ahead of Romain Grosjean of Lotus.
Alonso’s teammate Felipe Massa, who has been seen struggling with his performance in the season so far, came 12th in the qualifying with his best time of 1 minute and 36.255 seconds.
Massa was ahead of Williams’ pair of drivers, Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna who were followed by Force India drivers, Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg.
Furthermore, Caterham drivers, Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov secured 19thand 20th grid positions after the qualifying in China.
Tags: