China 2012 - Qualifying results - Rosberg jumps to the top, as Vettel falls at the first hurdle

Published 14 April 2012 by Christine

An intriguing three-part qualifying saw Jean-Éric Vergne the "big name" dropped out in the first session. An even bigger name falling out early was Sebastian Vettel, who didn't manage to make it through to the top ten and qualified in 11th place. Massa was also out in Q2, opening up the top ten shootout to some new names. It was Mercedes who finally turned their pace into positions, with Nico Rosberg securing his first pole position in Formula One. He was followed by Hamilton, who gets a five place grid drop, and then Schumacher - making it an all-Mercedes front row.

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	1:35.121	11
2	Lewis Hamilton	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	1:35.626	14
3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	1:35.691	13
4	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber F1 Team	1:35.784	13
5	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Team	1:35.898	15
6	Jenson Button	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	1:36.191	16
7	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	1:36.290	14
8	Sergio Pérez	Sauber F1 Team	1:36.524	17
9	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari	1:36.622	17
10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	No Time	15
11	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1:36.031	11
12	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari	1:36.255	14
13	Pastor Maldonado	Williams F1 Team	1:36.283	14
14	Bruno Senna	Williams F1 Team	1:36.289	14
15	Paul di Resta	Sahara Force India F1 Team	1:36.317	14
16	Nico Hülkenberg	Sahara Force India F1 Team	1:36.745	14
17	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	1:36.956	14
18	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	1:37.714	8
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham F1 Team	1:38.463	9
20	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham F1 Team	1:38.677	7
21	Timo Glock	Marussia F1 Team	1:39.282	10
22	Charles Pic	Marussia F1 Team	1:39.717	10
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT Formula 1 Team	1:40.411	7
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT Formula 1 Team	1:41.000	10

107% time: 1:42.931