Nico Rosberg took full advantage of his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton failing to post a qualifying lap at the Chinese Grand Prix by securing pole position.
The German, who has won the first two races of the season, left it late but was able to post a time of 1:35.402, half a second quicker than Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
Ferrari duo Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel make up the second row but will be disappointed to not have at least one car on the front row because of Hamilton's woes.
The world champion, pole-sitter in the first two races, already had a five-place grid penalty to contend with but was not able to even post a time as engine trouble saw him dead last in qualifying.
1. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
2. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
4. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
5. Valtteri Bottas (Williams)
6. Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull)
7. Sergio Perez (Force India)
8. Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso)
9. Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso)
10. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India)
11. Felipe Massa (Williams)
12. Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
13. Jenson Button (McLaren)
14. Romain Grosjean (Haas)
15. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber)
16. Felipe Nasr (Sauber)
17. Kevin Magnussen (Renault)
18. Esteban Gutierrez (Haas)
19. Jolyon Palmer (Renault)
20. Rio Haryanto (Manor)
21. Pascal Wehrlein (Manor)
22. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
Pascal Lemesre
