Lewis Hamilton has returned to leave his Mercedes in the preferred position for Sunday. Rosberg followed him very closely and significantly further Vettel and Massa occupy the second row of the grid.
The Mercedes have returned to excel and this time they have more advantage than expected. Lewis Hamilton has stood again ahead of Rosberg, although it seemed that the last time the German would take the pole, leaving it all in a scare of less than half a tenth. Vettel remains the first of the mortals ahead of Williams.
The session was played with some normalcy. Manor, McLaren and Force India wore the softer tires for Q1, the Ferrari engine team has been out far behind the McLaren, which was three seconds faster with Button as leader. Hülkenberg closes the knockout zone leaving Kvyat in.
The Q2 offered more surprises. Both Toro Rosso – with Verstappen boasting the fastest time – have also been left out, just ahead of Sergio Perez. Kvyat, who is suffering too many engine problems this weekend, has only been faster than his former team drivers and will start from the twelfth position. Maldonado was the last car to be left out of the final round.
Again we had the two Sauber in Q3 and Lotus. Despite this milestone and even having fought for more forward positions at some stage of the session, the blue cars close the grid behind Grosjean. The French shares row with Daniel Ricciardo.
The shortcomings of RedBull remain evidence. Although it appears that not every weekend will be like this, tensions mount in the team while seeing results. Not only do they choose to seventh, but have a car in the twelfth due to mechanical problems and sometimes its sister team happens ahead.
The Ferrari, still in good shape. Raikkonen was sixth and third Vettel, leaving the Williams in the middle, not letting their guard down. In the next galaxy are the Mercedes, eight tenths ahead, with Rosberg that fails to get the leadership of his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Provisional starting grid:
| Pos | No | Name | Team | Lap Time | Laps | ||
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:35.782 | 12 | ||
| 2 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:35.824 | 12 | ||
| 3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:36.687 | 17 | ||
| 4 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:36.954 | 15 | ||
| 5 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:37.143 | 15 | ||
| 6 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:37.232 | 17 | ||
| 7 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing | 1:37.540 | 18 | ||
| 8 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:37.905 | 20 | ||
| 9 | 12 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:38.067 | 16 | ||
| 10 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:38.158 | 15 | ||
| 11 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:38.134 | 13 | ||
| 12 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull Racing | 1:38.209 | 13 | ||
| 13 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:38.393 | 14 | ||
| 14 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:38.538 | 14 | ||
| 15 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:39.290 | 10 | ||
| 16 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:39.216 | 6 | ||
| 17 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:39.276 | 6 | ||
| 18 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:39.280 | 8 | ||
| 19 | 28 | Will Stevens | Manor | 1:42.091 | 6 | ||
| 20 | 98 | Roberto Merhi | Manor | 1:42.842 | 8 |