Sport 's propensity to play mind games with its protagonists was rarely more obviously stated than after qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix , when Nico Rosberg cursed his Mercedes team . Hamilton , the world champion , was relaxed and delighted having taken pole but Rosberg , his team-mate , was grim-faced , demoralised and made his first public criticism of his team . Nico Rosberg will start behind pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton with Sebastian Vettel third on the grid in China . Rosberg cut a frustrated figure in the paddock after he missed out on pole to Hamilton by just 0.042secs . Rosberg was only four-hundredths of a second behind the Briton and will start second on the grid . Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari is third , nearly a second adrift of Hamilton . But Rosberg was visibly angry after the Mercedes pit-wall brains put him under unnecessary ‘ pressure ’ . The German was the last driver out for his final flying lap , meaning he had to rush to get in a competitive time . Rosberg , who is customarily gracious in defeat , fell slightly short of Hamilton ’ s mark and was grumpy afterwards . He said : ‘ It was not ideal to put me under pressure like that . I don ’ t think it cost me anything , but even the mind-set to know that I have to speed up a bit — we need to look into that . Sparks fly off the back of Rosberg 's Mercedes during qualifying for Sunday 's race in Shanghai . The German has now been out-qualified by Hamilton at each of the three races this season . ‘ Other than that the lap was good and it is very annoying as the lap is never perfect , so four hundredths is always in it . Tyre degradation is going to be a big issue for the race as we are going to take the tyres right to the limit . So there are many opportunities. ’ Poor old Rosberg was cock of the walk in the early and middle parts of last season , but he seems terribly lacklustre since Hamilton won the title . Even his Mercedes boss , Niki Lauda , said he should ‘ sort himself out ’ — a statement on Rosberg ’ s psyche rather than his work ethic . Whether he has the speed to match Hamilton may be at the centre of his anger . The Briton set his fastest time on his penultimate lap . It was enough . Rosberg , though , got closer to Hamilton than he has recently . McLaren will again be towards the back of the grid with Jenson Button 17th and Fernando Alonso 18th . Barely a hair ’ s breadth separated the former champions . Button said : ‘ I guess we hoped we might be just a bit closer than we were today . In practice , we ’ d looked a bit more competitive , certainly . ‘ We ’ d found a reasonably good balance with the car , in fact , but the lap-time isn ’ t quite there yet. ’ Hamilton will start from the front of the pack as he bids to win his fourth grand prix in China .
Nico Rosberg was the last driver out of the pit-lane and was forced to turn in a quicker out-lap than he would have liked ahead of his final shot at pole . The Mercedes drivers were all within 0.4s of each other on average - but Hamilton had an advantage over Rosberg, who finished third.