Spengler admits 'risks' will be required

The Mercedes driver crashed in morning practice and again in Q1 on Saturday, leaving him 17th on the grid while his title pursuers - Paul di Resta and Gary Paffett - share the front row.

Spengler was philosophical about his plight on Saturday evening in China, and he added that he is expecting a tough race for everyone on the streets of Shanghai.

"This is the kind of thing that can happen on a street track," said Spengler. "I just tried to find a couple of metres in the braking zone at Turn 2, and it's so slippery there so I hit the wall.

"I will have to be careful at the start to make sure I avoid any accidents on the first lap, but at some point I am going to have to take some risks.

"I need to get into the points, and we have a fast car so we have a good chance if we can have a clean race."

Spengler added that he does not want to take too many chances early in the race, in case things develop in his favour later on.

"On a track like this you can have an accident at any point in the race," he said. "So I don't want to find myself out of the race early and then something happens that I could have taken advantage of if I was still running.

"Anything can happen, so I will push hard in the race to get into the points."