Nico Rosberg took his first ever pole position, and Mercedes’ first since 1955 during the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix weekend. The German was 0.5s clear of second placed Lewis Hamilton who’s gonna have to start from 7th place tomorrow after a 5-place grid penalty due to a gearbox change.
Michael Schumacher, in the second Mercedes, took 3rd position ahead of an extremely impressive Kamui Kobayashi, who continued Sauber’s excellent form, taking 4th position.
Kimi Raikkonen snatched 5th position for Lotus, with Jenson Button securing 6th, almost 5 tenths slower than teammate Hamilton.
Mark Webber settled for 7th position in a disappointing qualifying session for the Red Bulls; Sebastian Vettel couldn’t make it into Q3 and is starting 11th tomorrow.
Sergio Perez made sure Sauber’s pace is no fluke as the Mexican took 8th position, with Fernando Alonso and Romain Grosjean completing the top 10 respectively.
Tune in for an exciting race tomorrow at 10:00AM (Beirut time)
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m35.121s 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m35.626s + 0.505 3. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m35.691s + 0.570 4. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m35.784s + 0.663 5. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m35.898s + 0.777 6. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m36.191s + 1.070 7. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m36.290s + 1.169 8. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m36.524s + 1.403 9. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m36.622s + 1.501 10. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault No time Q2 cut-off time: 1m35.831s 11. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m36.031s + 0.331 12. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m36.255s + 0.555 13. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m36.283s + 0.583 14. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m36.289s + 0.589 15. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m36.317s + 0.617 16. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m36.745s + 1.045 17. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m36.956s + 1.256 Q1 cut-off time: 1m36.933s 18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m37.714s + 1.516 19. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m38.463s + 2.265 20. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m38.677s + 2.479 21. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m39.282s + 3.084 22. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m39.717s + 3.519 23. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m40.411s + 4.213 24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m41.000s + 4.802