Nico Rosberg and his Mercedes surprised us all in Montmeló with an amazing pole position, followed by Lewis Hamilton and the three times world champion, Sebastian Vettel.
There have been differences in strategies throughout the session, for example, in Q1 the Red Bulls have qualified with softer tyres, and Ferrari has done so with the hard. With this, the Ferrari of Alonso had two sets of new soft tyres for Q3, in this, the drivers who had more than a new set of tyres have come out of the box at the beginning of the session and again at the end. Finally this has not done much since Kimi and Alonso finished 4th and 5th respectively.
The big surprise in the middle of the classification has been the elimination of Jenson Button in Q2, he ended in 14th position, and that none of the STR have passed into Q3. Finally the two Williams have been the great disappointment of the day as neither of the two drivers of the English team have passed the Q1.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes AMG Petronas | 1:20.718 | 12 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes AMG Petronas | 1:20.972 | 12 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Infiniti Red Bull Racing | 1:21.054 | 12 |
| 4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus F1 Team | 1:21.177 | 17 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:21.218 | 12 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:21.219 | 12 |
| 7 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus F1 Team | 1:21.308 | 16 |
| 8 | Mark Webber | Infiniti Red Bull Racing | 1:21.570 | 12 |
| 9 | Sergio Pérez | Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes | 1:22.069 | 13 |
| 10 | Paul Di Resta | Sahara Force India | 1:22.233 | 17 |
| Out in Q2: | ||||
| 11 | Daniel Ricciardo | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:22.127 | 14 |
| 12 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:22.166 | 12 |
| 13 | Adrian Sutil | Sahara Force India | 1:22.346 | 12 |
| 14 | Jenson Button | Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes | 1:22.355 | 9 |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber F1 Team | 1:22.389 | 13 |
| 16 | Esteban Gutiérrez | Sauber F1 Team | 1:22.793 | 15 |
| Out in Q1: | ||||
| 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams F1 Team | 1:23.260 | 9 |
| 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams F1 Team | 1:23.318 | 9 |
| 19 | Giedo Van der Garde | Caterham F1 Team | 1:24.661 | 6 |
| 20 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia F1 Team | 1:24.713 | 6 |
| 21 | Max Chilton | Marussia F1 Team | 1:24.996 | 6 |
| 22 | Charles Pic | Caterham F1 Team | 1:25.070 | 6 |