text: 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 .
target: 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 German narrowly lost out  to his team-mate Lewis Hamilton .
  Rosberg was just 0.042secs slower than his Mercedes rival .
  Rosberg also said: 'Oh, come on, guys', over the team radio after he was informed he'd missed out on pole for Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix .