Nico Rosberg takes his 2nd pole position of the season with his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, completing the front row. Daniil Kvyat is fine after a crash which ended the final session early.
As Q1 began, Rosberg told his team that his engine wasn’t feeling normal. Ericsson had a huge side going into Spoon corner but managed to halt before impacting the barrier.
The two Mercedes set blistering times on the prime compound to put nearly 1.5 seconds between them and the Ferrari and Williams’ behind.
Max Verstappen stopped on track with an issue – he qualified for the next session but wouldn’t be able to participate in Qualifying after jumping out of his Toro Rosso. This brought out yellow flags at the end of Q1 and prevented some drivers setting laps.
Those eliminated in Q1 were: Button (16th), Ericsson (17th), Nasr (18th), Sevens (19th) and Rosso (20th).
Q2 ran smoothly without incident. Rosberg topped the session by a tenth from his teammate well clear of the rest. Drivers from five teams closely fought for the final four spots in the top 10 shootout.
Those eliminated in Q2 were: Hulkenberg (11th), Sainz (12th), Maldonado (13th), Fernando Alonso (14th) and the absent car of Verstappen (15th).
Rosberg led the top 10 shootout after the first runs with Hamilton less than a tenth behind after a lockup at the hairpin for the champion. With the Ferrari’s, Williams’ and Ricciardo split by less than half a second.
Qualifying was brought to an early end by a massive crash for Daniil Kvyat which brought out the red flag with half a minute remaining.
Hamilton 2nd, Bottas 3rd, Vettel 4th, Massa 5th, Raikkonen 6th, Ricciardo 7th, Grosjean 8th, Perez didn’t set a time but lines up 9th and Kvyat finished 10th.
