Mercedes has become used to starting on the front row after a dominant couple of years in Formula One. Not so much from the back of the field.
Nico Rosberg will take the pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix, but defending world champion lewis Hamilton will have to start from the last row after an early exit from qualifying due to a power unit problem.
Rosberg set a time of 1 minute, 35.402 seconds on Saturday, qualifying a half-second ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo in second place.
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel qualified third and fourth. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas qualified fifth, followed by Daniil Kvyat, in sixth. Sergio Perez of Force India was seventh, with Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso eighth and ninth, respectively.