Valtteri Bottas got his first ever pole position in Formula 1 ahead of his teammate, Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari couldn’t match the Mercedes this time, with Vettel on 3rd.
Q1 ended with a yellow flag caused by Sainz after his Toro Rosso stopped in the last corner when he had set the fastest first sector overall and improved his personal best in the second one. This didn’t allow some of the drivers to improve their lap times and left Vandoorne, Pérez, Ericsson and Magnussen in the knock-out zone behind Sainz.
Alonso managed to make it through, but happiness wouldn’t last long as his Honda engine broke down when he was setting a quick lap time. Wehrlein had a wonderful comeback and put his Sauber up in P13, ahead of Ocon‘s Force India. Kvyat and Stroll were the other drivers eliminated.
Bottas stole pole position from Hamilton by setting a time only 0.023s faster than his teammate’s. Vettel was 3rd, but very far behind (+0.4s). Ricciardo managed to bring his Red Bull ahead of Räikkönen and his teammate Verstappen. Hülkenberg had another great qualifying with P7 ahead of Massa, Grosjean and Palmer. It was Palmer‘s first Q3 appearance and the first time both Renaults made it to the final round of qualifying since 2011.