QUALIFYING REPORT
The final two Q3 berths went to the
Force Indias of Hulkenberg and Perez.
In Q3, Hamilton for the first time
stated a forceful case for pole position.
His opening run yielded a time of
1:30.758 and that netted him provisional
pole with 0.195 in hand over Rosberg.
The battle for the places immediately
behind was equally intense with just five
hundredths of a second separating thirdplaced Raikkonen from Ricciardo in sixth
place. Sandwiched between them were
Vettel in fourth and Verstappen in fifth.
It was the final sector that made the
difference for Rosberg on the final run.
After losing out in S1, the German was
marginally quicker than his team-mate in
the middle sector and in the final sector,
and secured his 30th career pole with
just 13 thousandths of a second in hand
over his close title rival.
The fight for P3 and P4, meanwhile,
went Ferrari’s way with the Scuderia
stretching away slightly from Red Bull on
the final runs. Raikkonen finished as the
only man outside of the Mercedes duo to
dip below 1m31s. Vettel qualified fourth
ahead of Verstappen and Ricciardo.
This time there were almost three tenths
of a second between P3 and P6. Vettel
though will drop back to P7 once his
penalty is applied.
Behind the Red Bulls, Perez
qualified seventh for Force India, with
Grosjean eighth for Haas. The final two
spots in Q3 were filled by Hulkenberg
and Gutierrez.