Lewis Hamilton took his 59th career pole position ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg by two-tenths of a second with a time of 1m18.704s.
Max Verstappen in the Red Bull managed to secure third place behind both Mercedes on the grid with team mate Ricciardo just behind him on the second row. Hulkenberg was the surprise package in qualifying by slotting into fifth place on the grid just six tenths behind Hamilton’s pole time.
Unfortunately, home-town hero Sergio Perez couldn’t even make it out of Q2 – lining up in twelfth place.
However before the start of qualifying could even get underway, Jolyon Palmer’s Renault was found to have a crack in the chassis meaning that the mechanics had to make up a whole new car for him in preparation ahead of Sunday’s race.
First out on track was one of the home racers in Esteban Gutierrez, who on his first flying lap found traffic which really showed to be a problem through Q1 for everyone, towards the halfway point of the session only half the field had actually set a representative lap time.
With Palmer out of qualifying it gave those towards the back of the grid a chance to make Q2. With just six minutes remaining both Haas cars were languishing in the drop zone which would’ve certainly set the alarm bells off in the team.
Danil Kvyat also ran into issues in the session claiming he was losing power, so the Toro Rosso mechanics worked furiously to get the young Russian back out on circuit as his time was under threat of leaving him out of the first part of qualifying. Despite their valiant efforts they could not fix the issues that plagued his car.
As the chequered flag fell on Q1 it was Palmer, Romain Grosjean, Esteban Ocon, Felipe Nasr, Kyvat and Guttierez that were knocked out of qualifying. Manor’s Pascal Werhlein successfully navigated his way out of the session which will no doubt help his cause in searching for a seat next season.
Hamilton was the first to leave the pit-lane in Q2 on the soft tyre with the aim to start the race on them, this could be a good strategy call because the supersoft tyre has not shown to last for very long in the race runs.
Nico Hulkenberg and Sebastian Vettel also went out on the yellow banded tyres while Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull went out on the supersoft rubber clearly showing that there was a big difference in the strategies for the race.
Hamilton’s first lap in Q2 did appear to be hampered exiting the stadium section by Vettel who was preparing for his own lap, it is yet unknown if the stewards were going to look at that and perhaps penalise the four-time world champion for blocking Hamilton.
With the titanic battle for fourth in the constructors championship getting red hot with just three races left, it was a huge tussle between both Force India and Williams drivers as to who was going to make the final part of qualifying, unfortunately for the home hero in Sergio Perez found himself in twelfth place and out of qualifying.
Those who did not make the top-ten shootout were Pascal Werhlein, Marcus Ericsson, Kevin Magnussen, Jenson Button, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso.
Once the green light for final twelve minutes of qualifying hour was lit, it was Hulkenberg who left for the circuit first. As the rest of the field followed closely behind, the tension gathered as to who would come out on top.
Because of the sensitivity of the supersoft tyre throughout the session, there was a massive queue of traffic in the stadium section as everyone backed off to get some space so they can let loose their flying laps.
Hamilton was to strike the first blow in the battle for pole position while teammate Rosberg was half a second off.
With the final minutes in sight, the circuit fell silent as all ten drivers came into the pits for a fresh set of tyres and the smallest amount of fuel to get them round. It was quickly shattered as some got the changes done as quickly as possible and left for their final runs.
Circuit temperatures had been creeping up as the session ran its course, meaning that when the drivers attempted their final runs very few could improve on their times. Rosberg managed to claw back some of the gap to his teammate and managed to secure second place on the grid for the race on Sunday.
This will help boost his confidence as he has the opportunity to clinch the title for the first this season if results go his way in the race.
