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Mercedes' Rosberg takes pole at Chinese GP

Xinhua, April 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

Mercedes experienced a bitter-sweet day as Nico Rosberg captured pole position while Lewis Hamilton suffered an early exit due to an engine problem in the qualifying of the Chinese Grand Prix here on Saturday.

Rosberg clocked a time of one minute, 35.402 seconds ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo in second place with 1:35.917. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel qualified third and fourth respectively.

Hamilton had engine problems early in the first segment of qualifying. He will start at the back for Sunday's race. The last time Hamilton started far back was at the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix when his engine caught fire.

However, Hamilton still showed self-confidence towards Sunday's race.

"Comeback experience is no strange to me. We have good racing cars, and I'm confident in at least earning the point in tomorrow's race. Of course, fighting for top three is still possible," said Hamilton.

After introducing a new rolling-elimination system in the first two races of the season, which proved unsuccessful, Formula One returned to last year's qualifying format at the Chinese Grand Prix. Endit