Mercedes F1 ©
Nico Rosberg has took pole for the third American Grand Prix in Austin, Texas ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in the first of the Williams in third.
Behind the Finn came his team-mate Felipe Massa with Daniel Ricciardo and his Red Bull fifth, Fernando Alonso sixth and the McLaren pair of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen in seventh and eighth. Kimi Raikkonen was ninth in his Ferrari with Adrian Sutil in tenth, making his first Q3 appearance of the season.
The gauntlet was firmly in the hands of Lewis Hamilton in the early stages of qualifying, before Rosberg was almost one second faster in qualifying two and taking pole by 0.376 of a second.
After Friday’s second practice session, Rosberg said he had time in his pocket to be quicker than Hamilton in qualifying and he certainly proved it.
Sebastian Vettel who will start tomorrow’s race from the pit-lane, went out in Q1 to be within the 107% rule was 17th ahead of Romain Grosjean who ran wide on his final flying lap.
It was a difficult session for both Toro Rosso’s of Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Eric Vergne and also Force India’s Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg who filled places twelve to fifteen on the grid.
In contrast to Grosjean, his team-mate Pastor Maldonado had his best performance of the season, qualifying 11th but will start 10th after Jenson Button’s five-place grid penalty.
Rosberg delivered quite a large psychological blow to Hamilton with the pace gap right at the end of qualifying, but points don’t come in qualifying, they come during the race…
| # | Driver | Team | |
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | |
| 4 | Felipe Massa | Williams | |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | |
| 7 | Jenson Button | McLaren | |
| Jenson Button – Five place penalty – Gearbox change | |||
| 8 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | |
| 9 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | |
| 10 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | |
| 11 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | |
| 12 | Sergio Perez | Force India | |
| 13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | |
| 14 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | |
| Daniil Kvyat – 10 Place penalty – Engine change | |||
| 15 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | |
| 16 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | |
| 17 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | |
| Sebastian Vettel – Pit lane start – Changed all power unit components | |||
| 18 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | |
