As expected, it was a two-way battle between the Mercedes drivers for the top spot in qualifying, but Rosberg reversed the order seen in all three practice sessions as he set a time 0.279s quicker than his team-mate. On his second run he was matching his sector times from his first attempt but when the news of Hamilton’s mistake made his cockpit he was able to back off and return to the pits.

The results of Bahrain qualys:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:35.439	1:33.708	1:33.18	12
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:35.323	1:33.872	1:33.464	12
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:36.220	1:34.592	1:34.051	16
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:34.934	1:34.842	1:34.247	15
5	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:34.998	1:34.747	1:34.346	19
6	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:35.234	1:34.925	1:34.368	15
7	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.699	1:34.714	1:34.387	17
8	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:35.085	1:34.842	1:34.511	14
9	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.288	1:34.904	1:34.712	17
10	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:35.251	1:34.723	1:34.992	17
11	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:35.549	1:34.985		9
12	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:34.874	1:35.116		12
13	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:35.395	1:35.145		14
14	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:35.815	1:35.286		14
15	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:36.567	1:35.891		14
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:36.654	1:35.908		10
17	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:36.663			7
18	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:36.840			5
19	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:37.085			6
20	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:37.310			6
21	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:37.875			7
22	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:37.913			6
		Q1 107% Time		1:41.515

The start grid from tomorrow race:

No	Driver	Team	Grid
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	2
77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	3
11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	4
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	5
22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	6
19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	7
20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	8
14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	9
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	10
27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	11
26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	12
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	13
25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	14
21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	15
8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	16
13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	17
99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	18
10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	19
17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	20
9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	21
4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	22