After an incident filled qualifying, Rosberg takes pole position after a late yellow flag. A delayed session due to rain and multiple red flags, it ended controversially as many argued Rosberg had not slowed significantly under double waved yellows. However, he was later cleared by the stewards and will line up on pole alongside Hamilton.
Q1
Heavy rain before Q1 began meant the session was delayed for 20 minutes. When the cars eventually made it out on track it was on full wets as rain continued to fall. The two Force Indias went fastest before the session was red flagged due to the weather conditions.
After a brief pause, the session soon restarted and the track was much drier than before. But almost immediately after it resumed, it was red flagged again as Ericsson aquaplaned into the barrier. With track conditions constantly improving, the drivers soon headed out again. Some drivers took a risk by switching to intermediates, with Massa among those who made the change. However, it proved to be the wrong choice as he crashed into the wall on his lap and brought out the third red flag of the session.
When the session resumed the track was dry enough for intermediates, as the Mercedes pair immediately went fastest of all. All drivers got a lap in before the session was stopped early, by another set of red flags for Haryanto – who crashed at the same place as Ericcson before.
Both Renault drivers were eliminated along with Felipe Massa, who crashed earlier in the session. Ericcson ended the session 20th, whilst his teammate Nasr scraped through to Q2. The Manors will start from the back row.
Q2
With the track starting to dry, the drivers remained on inters initially. Hamilton went fastest early in the session, but the times rapidly dropped as the track dried. Bottas was the first driver to go onto slicks, immediately going fastest of all – almost a second quicker. The rest of the field soon followed, Alonso briefly going fastest for McLaren.
The track was improving all the time, so some drivers lost out by going early. Raikkonen slipped to 14th and was knocked out of the session. As many drivers improved, Hamilton was almost out, finishing 10th and just scraping into Q3.
Those who failed to make it into Q3 included Grosjean, 11th, Kvyat, 12th, Perez, 13th. Raikkonen was 14th, ahead of Gutierrez and Nasr.
Q3
After the initial runs, Hamilton was quickest of all, 4 tenths quicker than his teammate. On their next laps, both Rosberg and Ricciardo improved and came within two tenths of Hamilton. As they headed out for their final runs it was all to play for.
Verstappen was out of the battle as he failed to make it around to the line before the chequered flag, mistiming his run, so remained 4th. In sector 1, Hamilton went 3 tenths quicker than his personal best, on a lap which would have been enough for pole. However, he was forced to slow for double waved yellows in the second sector, as Alonso had a spin.
Rosberg was further behind and made it through without having to compromise his lap, taking pole by a tenth of a second. Ricciardo’s lap was ruined by the yellow flags, so will start 3rd and his teammate is 4th. Vettel will be 5th, alongside Sainz. An impressive qualifying for McLaren means Alonso and Button will start 7th and 8th respectively. Hulkenberg will start 9th and Bottas 10th after a disappointing session for Williams.
The Grid
Currently no driver has grid penalties to be applied, so the grid will line up in the same order as qualifying position. Therefore, they will line up:
Rosberg, Hamilton; Ricciardo, Verstappen; Vettel, Sainz; Alonso, Button; Hulkenberg, Bottas; Grosjean, Kvyat; Perez, Raikkonen; Gutierrez, Nasr; Palmer, Massa; Magnussen, Ericsson; Wehrlein, Haryanto.