On Friday, Hamilton headed a Mercedes 1-2 in both sessions. So, once again Mercedes look very strong going into qualifying and Hamilton must be favourite for pole – although recent qualifying sessions haven’t gone to plan for the Briton.
Force India were off the pace in final practice and were only 17th and 18th on the timesheets. The team is expecting to be much more competitive in qualy.
Q1 dropouts: Raikkonen, Kobayashi, Chilton, Ericsson, Hamilton and Maldonado
Vergne wins on soft tires first session.
Rosberg ends Q2 quickest on a 1m 23.310s. Then it is Vettel, Ricciardo, Bottas, Massa, Alonso, Button, Magnussen, Vergne and Hulkenberg.
Full results:
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:25.227 | 1:23.310 | 1:22.715 | 20 |
| 2 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:25.662 | 1:23.606 | 1:23.201 | 16 |
| 3 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1:25.690 | 1:23.776 | 1:23.354 | 19 |
| 4 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:25.495 | 1:23.676 | 1:23.391 | 18 |
| 5 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:26.087 | 1:24.249 | 1:23.909 | 17 |
| 6 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1:26.592 | 1:24.030 | 1:24.223 | 19 |
| 7 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:26.612 | 1:24.502 | 1:24.294 | 21 |
| 8 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Renault | 1:24.941 | 1:24.637 | 1:24.720 | 19 |
| 9 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:26.149 | 1:24.647 | 1:24.775 | 22 |
| 10 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:26.578 | 1:24.585 | 13 | |
| 11 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | STR-Renault | 1:25.361 | 1:24.706 | 14 | |
| 12 | 99 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:26.027 | 1:25.136 | 12 | |
| 13 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1:25.910 | 1:25.211 | 11 | |
| 14 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:25.709 | 1:25.260 | 10 | |
| 15 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:26.136 | 1:25.337 | 16 | |
| 16 | 17 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Ferrari | 1:26.728 | 1:27.419 | 14 | |
| 17 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:26.792 | 5 | ||
| 18 | 10 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham-Renault | 1:27.139 | 10 | ||
| 19 | 4 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Ferrari | 1:27.819 | 7 | ||
| 20 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham-Renault | 1:28.643 | 10 | ||
| 21 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | No time | 2 | ||
| 22 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | No time | 1 | ||
| Q1 107% Time | 1:30.886 |
Well….. me I’m hoping for rain, and safety cars.
With three out of five drivers in the bottom six….. perhaps I should really be hoping for a miracle 🙂