Nico Rosberg took the pole position of the Bahrain Grand Prix. The German from Mercedes ended the domination of his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, with a time of 1:33.185.
Esteban Gutiérrez was the first out on track in Q1. Daniel Ricciardo took the lead moments later, but the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg soon occupy the first two positions with medium tyres. Once they went out with the soft compunds, Nico Hulkenberg went first, followed by Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez. Sebastian Vettel, with the soft compound , was not able to improve the time of the Mercedes. Finally , Hulkenberg took the fastest time of the Q1. The drivers that could not make it to Q2 were both Caterham and Marussia alongside Adrian Sutil and Pastor Maldonado, who was relegated in the last moment by his teammate Romain Grosjean. The French had an incident with Sutil that will be investigated by the stewards.
In Q2 , Hulkenberg was the first to mark time on the soft tyres. Hamilton went on his first flying lap and took the lead, followed by Fernando Alonso and Ricciardo, both more than half a second behind. Rosberg snatched the fastest time minutes after. As for McLaren , Jenson Button was placed in fourth and Kevin Magnussen in the sixth. Vettel was eighth in his first and only lap and this put him somehow in danger. Finally , after the improvement of several drivers, the German finished 11th and was out of Q3. With him Hulkenberg, Kvyat , Vergne, Gutiérrez and Grosjean could not make it to Q3.
Bottas began the action on track in Q3. The two Williams drivers scored the first two times, slipping between Pérez in the table. Rosberg improved the Finnish time in more than a second and Hamilton was not able to overcome the German. The drivers who already had at least one lap went back to the pits to change tyres and give their last laps. Apart from Kimi Raikkonen, who was placed fifth, there were no major improvements or change of position and Rosberg took the pole, followed by Hamilton and Ricciardo. The Australian has a sanction of 10 places in the starting grid, so he will start in P13 and his original position will be occupied by Valtteri Bottas.
