Nico Rosberg said he cannot be "ecstatic" about his dominant pole in China after teammate Lewis Hamilton failed to make it out of Q1.
Though Hamilton knew he could not take pole due to a gearbox penalty, the world champion's ERS issue meant Rosberg had no reference point in Q3 after taking pole by over half a second. After taking pole Rosberg also told Mercedes over the radio he was "sorry" the other car did not make it through qualifying.
Rosberg was happy with converting Mercedes' strong weekend into a spot at the front of the grid.
"I'm pleased of course," Rosberg said. "The whole weekend has gone well, the car has been handling well today in qualifying. To get the lap done and put it on pole I'm happy with that, of course. Not ecstatic because of course Lewis had bad luck and his car broke down so the fight didn't happen, didn't take place, but anyway, I'm pleased."
Rosberg will start tomorrow's race on the soft tyre after opting not to set a time on the super-soft compound in Q2. The top ten must start the race on the set they set their quickest Q2 lap on, meaning Daniel Ricciardo and Ferrari pair Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel start the race on the softest rubber.
However, Mercedes' decision to start on softs mean he is likely to have a longer first stint in the race. Though he is not sure of the specifics Rosberg is certain the tactical choice will benefit his race.
"I'm not really sure, I haven't done the strategy stuff yet but I would think that is going to be a good thing yeah. For sure to start on that tyre it maybe gives me a bit of an advantage over the others. But as I said, I'm not sure yet, I need to look in to it tonight."