Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher shocked the F1 paddock by scoring his first pole position since France 2006; the German was 0.080s faster than 2nd placed Mark Webber, but he’ll be dropping 5 places tomorrow after being penalized for his collision with Bruno Senna during the Spanish Grand Prix two weeks ago.
Nico Rosberg confirmed Mercedes’ strong pace by going 3rd fastest, almost 1 tenth clear of 4th placed Lewis Hamilton whose teammate Jenson Button was a low 13th position.
Romain Grosjean was the fastest of the two Lotuses, the Frenchman qualified 5th, while teammate Kimi Raikkonen was down in 8th.
After failing to get into Q3 in the last 5 races, Felipe Massa took a surprising 7th position right behind his Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso.
Spanish Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado was 9th quickest, but will be dropping 10 places in tomorrow’s race after deliberatly colliding into Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber.
World Champion Sebastian Vettel never looked like much of a threat, he ended up in 10th position.
1. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m14.301s 2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m14.381s 3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m14.448s 4. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m14.583s 5. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m14.639s 6. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m14.948s 7. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m15.049s 8. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m15.199s 9. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m15.245s 10. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault no time Q2 cut-off time: 1m15.322s 11. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m15.421s + 0.510 12. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m15.508s + 0.597 13. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m15.536s + 0.625 14. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m15.709s + 0.798 15. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m15.718s + 0.807 16. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m15.878s + 0.967 17. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m16.885s + 1.974 Q1 cut-off time: 1m16.491s 18. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m16.538s + 1.120 19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m17.404s + 1.986 20. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m17.947s + 2.529 21. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m18.096s + 2.678 22. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m18.476s + 3.058 23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m19.310s + 3.892 24. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari no time