Rosberg takes pole as Bottas shines for Williams

(Mercedes AMG F1 Team)

 

Mercedes Nico Rosberg claimed the fifth pole position of his Formula One career under lights at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain. The German's time of 1m 33.185s was just 0.279s ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton who made a mistake into turn one on his final qualifying run. Daniel Ricciardo put his Red Bull RB10 into third place however he will start the race from 13th on the grid following as a result of his ten place penalty which he was handed following last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

 

It was a fantastic session for the Williams Martini Racing Team as Valtteri Bottas qualified in fouth place put will start third equalling his best grid start from Montreal last season, his team mate Felipe Massa will start the race from 7th on the grid.

 

It was also a great session for Sahara Force India's Sergio Perez as the Mexican qualified in fifth place but will start from 4th which is a fantastic result for him as he failed to make the start of the race in Malaysia last weekend. For the first time since returning to Ferrari at the start of this season Kimi Raikkonen out-qualified team mate Fernando Alonso and will start the race from fifth on the grid.

 

Jenson Button put in a good performance for McLaren and will start the race from 6th on the grid just ahead of Felipe Massa in the second Williams, while Kevin Magnussen will start the race from 8th on the grid.

 

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso will start the race from 9th on the grid. Following his team-mate's grid penalty reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel will start the race from 10th after being knocked out in Q2.

 

Following an impressive showing this morning, Nico Hulkenberg will start the race from 11th on the grid just ahead of Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat in 12th place. Daniel Ricciardo will start the race from 13th thanks as a result of his grid penalty but he will of course be trying to make his way through the field.

 

Jean Eric Vergne was once again out-qualified by his Toro Rosso team mate and will start the race from 14th on the grid. Esteban Gutierrez qualified in 15th place for Sauber and will start the race just ahead of the Lotus duo of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado who will start the race from 16th and 17th respectively.

 

Adrian Sutil will start the race from 18th on the grid in the second Sauber, however he is being investigated for an incident with the Lotus F1 Team's Romain Grosjean so the German could face the prospect of receiving some penalty points on his Super Licence.

 

Kamui Kobayashi put in another solid performance to be the quickest of 'new team's' and will start the race from 19th place on the grid just ahead of the Marussia of Jules Bianchi while Marcus Ericsson will start the race from 21st with the second Marussia of Max Chilton rounding out the grid in 22nd place.

 

©Ben Johnston 2014