Beating Rosberg by two tenths, Hamilton takes his ninth pole of the season. A strong session for Red Bull allowed them to lock out the second row on the grid, Ricciardo just ahead of Verstappen. Ferrari were disappointed to be unable to challenge Red Bull, instead securing 5th and 6th on the grid.
Q1
An easy session for Mercedes and Red Bull, with Hamilton setting the fastest lap of the weekend so far. Hulkenberg set an impressive lap, going quicker than the Ferraris.
Button was disappointed to drop out, having been held up by Palmer on his flying lap. The Renault driver had failed to see Button, remaining on the racing line and forcing the McLaren driver to take a compromised line around the final corner. Palmer just scraped into Q2, but his teammate Magnussen lost out and so did Gutierrez.
A strong session for Ericsson saw him make it through to the next session, his teammate Nasr unable to match this pace. Neither Manor driver managed to escape the first session of qualifying.
- Grosjean
- Magnussen
- Button
- Wehrlein
- Nasr
- Ocon
Q2
Mercedes chose to set their time on the soft tyres, with Verstappen the only other driver to do so. This should give them an advantage in the race, with the supersofts expected to be a poor choice of tyre for the race itself. Ricciardo set the pace in Q2, only a fraction faster than Rosberg, despite being on the quicker tyres.
Williams got both drivers through to Q3, but crucially Perez, of Force India, failed to do so. He was a long way off his teammate, who easily made it into the final session. A brilliant lap for Sainz saw him beat both Williams to safely get into Q3.
- Perez
- Alonso
- Kvyat
- Gutierrez
- Palmer
- Ericsson
Q3
In the first runs, it was Hamilton who just edged out his teammate Rosberg, setting a 1:35.370. Rosberg ran wide at turn one, losing time in the opening sector. On their final laps, Hamilton went incredibly fast again in the opening sector, another two tenths faster than his best, his teammate again struggled to get a clean lap in.
Rosberg was able to beat Hamitlon’s initial lap, but an even quicker time for Hamilton let him snatch pole by two tenths. Behind, Ricciardo just edged Verstappen out to take third. Raikkonen took fifth, ahead of his teammate Vettel. Hulkenberg was just behind the Ferraris in 7th.
Bottas out qualified his teammate Massa, the Williams drivers taking 8th and 9th respectively. Sainz took 10th, a tenth off the rest.
- Hamilton
- Rosberg
- Ricciardo
- Verstappen
- Raikkonen
- Vettel
- Hulkenberg
- Bottas
- Massa
- Sainz
The Grid
With no drivers serving grid penalties for the race, the provisional grid is:
Hamilton, Rosberg; Ricciardo, Verstappen; Raikkonen, Vettel; Hulkenberg, Bottas; Massa, Sainz; Perez, Alonso; Kvyat, Gutierrez; Palmer, Ericsson; Grosjean, Magnussen; Button, Wehrlein; Nasr, Ocon.