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Mark Webber was clearly relieved in China after he recovered from a bad qualifying session and a poor start to salvage fourth place.

He passed RBR team mate Sebastian Vettel right at the end as he made good progress through the leading pack.

It was the Australian’s third fourth place in a row this season, and ensured that he also stayed ahead of Vettel in the World Championship.

“When you run that sort of strategy, which worked well in the end, you also pay the risk with traffic,” said Webber. “How is it going to work for you, where do you get the traffic, do you get the marbles, where do you get off line? It’s tricky. In the end to gain a few positions off some of those guys was good.

“It was fun – as long as you keep getting positions it’s good. We’re not the strongest on the straights, so you have to get the passing move done in other places, which can be a little bit more risky.”

Webber’s life was made harder after he dropped three places in the first lap, ending it in ninth.

“There was plenty to do in the first stint, we were a fair way back in the pack. And then obviously people started to lay their cards on the table in terms of what strategies to use. There were a lot of cars evenly paced, strategy wise it was very, very important to execute that as cleanly as possible. The out laps were important. I had Lewis j-u-s-t in Turn One on one of my out laps, and got on the marbles there.

“It was tricky to keep the balance of the car together, and keep pushing as hard as possible. In the end we got a good handful of points, I think it’s three fourths on the bounce now. Anyway we leave here reasonably satisfied. At the start of the race we looked like we were going to get a lot less, we got something at the end, we kept boxing and it looks like we need to keep improving.”

As might have been expected Fernando Alonso lost his World Championship lead in Shanghai after finishing only ninth- although at one stage he looked set to come away with a useful helping of points.

After starting in the same position Alonso made some good progress and spent part of the race in fourth place pushing Lewis Hamilton. However his relatively late last stop didn’t pay off and he tumbled down the order as the final stages of the race unfolded.

“It was not great, obviously we didn’t gain any positions,” said the Spaniard. “In Malaysia we said the strategy was perfect, was good, and today we have to be honest with ourselves knowing that it was not good. We didn’t make any single clear lap, we were always behind people and we finished behind Williams, so something went wrong for sure. So we need to analyse and improve for next time.”

Alonso said the team had expected more people to hit the ‘cliff’ with their tyres in the same way as Kimi Raikkonen, which would have allowed him to take more advantage of his fresher rubber.

“It was busy, and also with the top speed we have at the moment it was not possible to overtake anyone on the straights, so we had to risk in some strange positions, and sometimes you go off the track. It was a tricky race.”

Having taken his first F1 pole on Saturday Nico Rosberg followed up with his first win after a near faultless weekend for the German.

Rosberg got the start right and against the expectations of the opposition managed to not only keep his tyres alive but make a two-stop strategy work successfully. It was his 111^th Grand Prix start.

“It’s been the perfect weekend,” said Rosberg. “It was a great race. It was impressive to see really how we’ve managed to progress so quickly. We’ve really had some difficult times in the races, the first two, but we’ve made a lot of changes, worked hard at it and all of a sudden it’s come good. That’s been fantastic to see today.

“It’s never easy, especially taking care of the tyres was a big difficulty and a big challenge today because there was a lot of tyre wear, but it worked out well.

“I think we got it all right today, even tyre strategy. Everybody in the team did a great job, all the different people, my engineers at the start, the strategy, this and that – everything came together.”

Rosberg was pleased with the way the team had worked through its problems in the early races.

“Well, it’s set-up really, really thinking about what’s going on in the race and why are we struggling and trying to improve that situation. Surely the conditions helped us today, I think, but even so, we’re just moving forward and that’s very nice to see.

“Already from the beginning of the year we’ve been very strong in qualifying, perhaps more difficult in the race. Now we’re still strong in qualifying – very strong, maybe even stronger – and also improving the race, so it’s good progress forward and I’m sure that we will continue this ongoing development. It was mainly set-up.

“I had a great race today but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be like that at every race. We still need to push hard and continue progressing. Bahrain could be a little bit of a different story again. We need to wait and see. It’s difficult to predict. I couldn’t have predicted today so we’ll just take it as it comes, but for sure I’m looking forward to what’s to come because we’re looking much stronger.”

Ross Brawn is confident that Mercedes can follow-up on its qualifying performance in Shanghai with a strong showing in the race – despite the disappointments in Australia and Malaysia.

Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher start from the front row in China, and both have saved a set of soft tyres.

“I think one of the interesting things that was illustrated today was the narrow window that these tyres have in terms of their temperature window and their optimum working range,” said Brawn this afternoon.

“If we can hit that sweet spot, then we should have a good race tomorrow. But as you saw with Sebastian today, if you don’t quite get it right it makes it difficult.

“We’ve made a fair commitment this weekend to try and get the car in the best shape we can for the race, and then qualifying as with all teams I think comes as a second consideration. If we can carry over what we saw with our high fuel run then we can have some confidence that we can have a better race tomorrow. I’m not so confident that we can enjoy the advantage we had today, particularly with Nico, but I’m certainly optimistic that we can have a decent race tomorrow.”

Ross gave some fascinating insight into the challenge of keeping on top of the tyre temperature issue, and suggested that the situation would be more manageable than in the past two races.

“It is tricky, and you almost have to follow it and track it. There’s very little you can change before or during a race. Tyre pressures are free, front wing setting you’re allowed to change. There’s nothing else you can change on the car, so with the very small adjustments that you can make then you have to try and get the tyres to work properly. You’ve got no feedback. You’ve got nothing which is telling you exactly the right range.

“One of the things we have to achieve with the car in the future going forward is a broader sweet spot for the car. I think today we managed to get the car right in those conditions, with the tyres and the low fuel, and we’ve got to find ways of translating that into the race. I don’t know yet tomorrow whether we’ll hit that correct period.

“I think we’ve got a better chance because the conditions tomorrow are going to be more consistent that we’ve had for the last couple of days. We’ve had a couple of days of setting the car up. Both Melbourne, with a much hotter race day, and Malaysia, with a much colder race day, presented some challenges. We were not on the top of the job in those two races, and there were changing conditions.”

Nico Rosberg took the first pole of his F1 career with a superb effort in China, putting in a first run that was so fast that he didn’t need to go out again and use his last set of tyres.

The German had made mistakes on his Q3 laps in both Australia and Malaysia, and this was the first time that he’d really done himself justice this year. It was also the first pole for a works Mercedes since 1955.

“It worked out well, qualifying, especially as we got it all right in the end,” said Rosberg. “It was a good lap and it all came together. It’s the perfect start until now. I’m really happy for the whole team. It really shows that, as a team, we’re moving forward. In qualifying we’re very, very strong now.

“In the race we’re still not quite as strong and not where we want to be yet but also there, we’re learning a lot and progressing fast. The thing is we can’t make huge jumps in a couple of weeks, it’s going to take a bit more time, but we’re getting there.”

Rosberg climbed out of his car after his first run and walked calmly down to the FIA weight check to await the end of qualifying. Fortunately it was a good call, and nobody went faster.

“It was just a decision to save another set of tyres. It was a good lap, I didn’t know if it was going to be enough or not, but it was definitely a good lap and saving a set is very good for the race, so we just took the decision to go for that, because the race is where the points are, not in qualifying.

“It was strange beforehand because I was standing there on my own and everybody else was still going round, but I couldn’t do anything any more, so it was strange. And then slowly but surely, I saw the sector times and I saw that it was definitely going to be enough so fantastic, very excited.”

The prospects for Mercedes in tomorrow’s race remain unknown, given that the team has had two troubled events so far, and looking after the tyres will clearly be critical.

“For me it’s also sort of the start of the season now because the first two races haven’t gone too well. So it’s not bad to start first, obviously for us it’s fantastic. Of course it’s pretty clear I think that in the race we been not quite as good as in qualifying lately. We’ve worked very hard to try and improve that but it’s not something you can change in a few weeks.

“It’s going to take some time but we’re making good progress in the race, that’s important. It’s difficult to know exactly where we’re going to be tomorrow because again with the conditions changing, if it becomes a little bit colder that might help us, for example. I don’t really know how it’s going to go. For sure we’re going to try our best. We’re going to work hard tonight to try and do the final little details on the set up, electronically specifically, and make the most of it.”

Mark Webber outqualified team mate Sebastian Vettel in China, but the Aussie was still only seventh fastest as Red Bull struggles to repeat its form of the past two seasons.

The RBR drivers have taken different routes on exhaust arrangements this weekend, with Webber using the latest version and Vettel going back to the earlier spec.

“It’s a different championship this year, it’s tight,” said Webber. “Any bobble… If I made a mistake on my second lap in Q2, I’m out as well. So it’s very easily done.

“It was the best we could do, but in the end it wasn’t enough. We’re learning a lot, and it’s a tight field. If you’re not getting everything completely together, then you’re exposed.”

Webber conceded that RBR still has a lot of work to do: “We can keep saying we’re gonna get there, but we’ve got to do it. The team is working very, very hard, the guys have done a great job, but we have some pretty quick cars out there. I think today was dominated by tyre prep and tyre awareness I suppose.

“We know the Mercedes is very, very hard on its tyres, so that night have helped them on one lap today. I’ve been there, like the old Jaguar days, very fast in qualy but hard in the race. Let’s see how it goes. We’re very strong in the Grands Prix, so looking forward to it.

“We’ll see how the tyres go. Temperature seems to be playing a big role this weekend on the tyres.”

Ferrari’s chassis technical director Pat Fry says that the team has no easy way out of its current problems – and admits that the Italian outfit is reviewing the way it does things as it seeks to get back on course.

“I think we have a reasonable understanding of them and the areas we need to be working on,” said the Briton today. “It’s like all these things, there’s never a golden bullet, it’s not a light switch you can turn on. You might have the idea of, ‘OK, that’s the problem’ but it’s hard work to try and fix it. And you’re not going to change it around in a week. Everyone is working very hard to fix all those issues and then get back on a sensible development curve.

“I think there’s a number of different issues that we’ve had, the most obvious one from the early testing was the exhaust system where we were struggling with what that was doing to the rear tyres. I think we now understand that and are on top of that – though we haven’t run that style exhaust system since the first Barcelona test.

“The other areas have come to light where we knew we had the problems [but] we didn’t know where and we were really learning that through the last Barcelona test. And then to fix problems it’s not the work of a minute. Here there are quite a few new parts on the car. There will be another set of updates, bigger updates, coming through for Barcelona. It’s a race of upgrading.”

Fry didn’t want to elaborate too much on the problems: “As I said, the exhaust is one of the more obvious changes that we’ve made, but that’s quite a small part of the problem that we’ve got. I don’t really want to go into where all the problems are – it’s not just a case of us trying to build a quicker car, we need to fundamentally be changing the methodologies that we use to select, design and manufacture so that we are competitive long term.

“There’s work on all fronts, not just work going into what we’re taking to Barcelona, there’s also a huge amount of work in just trying to change the fundamentals of what we do so we can actually take a step forward and be competing with everyone else.”

Asked about where Ferrari was losing out Fry made it clear that as ever, aerodynamics was at the heart of the matter.

“The biggest performance differentiator is aerodynamics. We’ve got some issues there that we’re trying to resolve. The areas you need to be working on is everything from the way you run the wind tunnel, the accuracy of your wind tunnel, the simulation that you use to decide what components to take forward, so we’re not leaving any stone unturned.

“We’re actually trying to review and revise our methodologies through the whole process and that carries on into the design office for trying to get weight out of various parts, make other bits more durable, so there’s  work going on absolutely everywhere  within the company, on the basic fundamental methodology as well as just trying to upgrade the car.”

Michael Schumacher topped the times in Shanghai this afternoon, and the German reported himself happy with the performance of the Mercedes W03 – although as ever, he remained a little cautious.

“Generally it’s been OK, a troublefree day considering we got rain this morning,” said the German. “The car handles definitely much better than we experienced the last two years here. If you have a balanced car here it makes a lot of contribution to lap time, and definitely that is the case. We are not yet where we want to be in terms of pace.

“We have got a lot stronger as a team over the last two years in making the pre-analysis and getting the car right, but you know we are on a Friday, not on a Sunday afternoon.”

Schumacher admitted that he was pleased that the FIA has now declared the W03’s DRS system legal.

“It certainly should quieten down some people who like speculation. It is a good innovation and I think it should be honoured by everyone. If you have an innovation, people should simply accept that. Mercedes has done a good job on this one, although it’s been overestimated, the worth of it, but it’s good. We put it on because it gives us some time.”

Bernie Ecclestone met with the team bosses in Shanghai on Friday lunchtime and insisted afterwards that the Bahrain GP is still going ahead.

The team used the opportunity to express their concerns, but Ecclestone denied that the subject had even been the main focus of the meeting.

“I just asked if anybody had any problems, and everybody said no problem at all,” he said.

“This race is on the calendar, it’s been on the calendar for quite a long time. We will be there. All the teams are happy to be there.”

Asked whether he had any concerns, he said: “Not at all. We haven’t got any problems.”

Questioned about doubts expressed in the media, he added: “That’s the problem, it’s been discussed by the media, they don’t have any idea what’s going on.

“I know people that live there, and it’s all very quiet.”

When asked by Sky News whether he was going to the race, he said: “What a stupid question. You’re going to get a stupid answer. What would you expect?”

Regarding the political aspect, Ecclestone said: “What F1 has done for Bahrain is put Bahrain on the map. They will sort out their internal problems, I’m quite sure.

“I’m happy that our position is quite clear, we don’t get involved in the politics in a country.

“We had some problems in England recently,” he added.

The FIA has broken its silence and pre-empted any discussion between the teams and Bernie Ecclestone today by stating that the Bahrain GP will go ahead as planned.

The governing body has issued the following statement, reproduced in full:

The FIA is the governing body of motor sport and therefore of Formula One. As such, it sets the season’s calendars following the proposal of the Commercial Rights Holder (CRH) in accordance with the local national authorities in all matters relating to safety.

Within that context, the FIA ensures that any event forming part of an FIA World Championship is organised in compliance with the FIA Statutes and the relevant Sporting and Technical Regulations, and that the safety of the public, officials, drivers and teams is secured at all times during an event.

The FIA must make rational decisions based on the information provided to us by the Bahraini authorities and by the Commercial Rights Holder. In addition we have endeavoured to assess the ongoing situation in Bahrain.

President Jean Todt led a fact-finding mission to the Kingdom in November 2011, meeting a large number of decision-makers and opinion formers, including elected Shia members of parliament, the president of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, ambassadors from the European Union countries, the Crown Prince, the Interior Minister and many members of the business community.

All expressed their wish for the Grand Prix to go ahead in 2012, and since then, the FIA has kept in close touch with all these stakeholders. Away from the public eye, the FIA has received regular security briefings from the most senior diplomatic officials based in the Kingdom as well as from other independent experts.

The 2012 calendar, as presented by the CRH, was ratified by the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) in September 2011. Since then no request from the F1 Commission or the CRH has been made to the WMSC to either postpone or cancel the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Based on the current information the FIA has at this stage, it is satisfied that all the proper security measures are in place for the running of a Formula One World Championship event in Bahrain.

Therefore, the FIA confirms that the 2012 Gulf Air F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain will go ahead as scheduled.