Rosberg beats Hamilton to Spain pole

Nico Rosberg has captured pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix with teammate Lewis Hamilton just behind in second to secure an all Mercedes front row lock-out for tomorrow’s race.

Rosberg’s impressive performance in Q3 was reminiscent of his Bahrain Grand Prix pole position; two quick laps at the end of the third session proved enough to take the top spot. Lewis Hamilton’s quick lap, just 0.254 seconds back of Rosberg, easily put the Brit ahead of defending world champion Sebastian Vettel, who could manage just third overall.

Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus qualifies in fourth ahead of hometown hero Fernando Alonso. Alonso’s teammate Massa qualified sixth after losing time in the third sector of his final fast lap. Massa is also at risk of a time penalty after he seemed to impede Mark Webber on track.

Romain Grosjean, Mark Webber, Sergio Perez and Paul di Resta close up the top ten on the gird for tomorrow’s race.

The start of Q2 saw all drivers opting to run the medium Pirelli compound. Though a strategy that paid off for some, others found the tyre difficult to manage, and the result was that ‘big name’ drivers’ times started to fall off. The Toro Rosso’s of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne line up eleventh and twelfth tomorrow, with the sister Force India car of Adrian Sutil capturing thirteenth – all ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button, who dropped out in fourteenth; his teammate Sergio Perez qualifying a full half a second quicker.

Sauber continue to struggle in qualifying with both drivers managing just P15 for Nico Hulkenberg and P16 for rookie driver Esteban Gutierrez – Gutierrez has failed to qualify in the top 10, or even higher than P14, for the 2013 season to date. Sauber have already stated they are monitoring the drivers’ progress closely.

A disappointing day for Williams F1 team came to an early end when both drivers failed to reach the second qualifying session. Valtteri Bottas could manage just seventeenth place overall, whilst his more experienced teammate Pastor Maldonado (pole sitter and winner of the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix) qualified just behind in eighteenth; both cars struggling with performance and failing to show almost any developments from the previous four races this season.

At the back of the grid, the usual suspects of Caterham and Marussia. Giedo van der Garde’s impressive last minute run saw the Caterham driver qualify P19 and ahead of both Marussia cars of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton. Charles Pic occupies P22 – the final place available on the grid for tomorrow’s race. Upgrades and developments continue to improve the Caterham and Marussia teams with just under half a second splitting the four drivers.

Various incidents on track mean that although qualifying is over, the final grid may still not be official. Pastor Maldonado appeared to hold up Jenson Button during Q1 and Esteban Gutierrez looked as though he blocked a flying lap of Kimi Raikkonen. As mentioned before, there is also an outstanding ‘impeding’ investigation involving Felipe Massa and Mark Webber. Resulting penalties may alter the grid for tomorrow’s race – time or grid place penalties are the norm in these situations.

Full qualifying times and results can be found below. The Formula 1 Gran Premio De España 2013 starts tomorrow, Sunday May 12th at 14:00 local time.

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