Rosberg shatters Hamilton morale once again! What about tomorrow?

With just three races remaining in the race for the World title there was plenty at stake as the Mercedes team-mates took the track for qualifying. Nico Rosberg gave his championship chances a healthy boost by qualifying on pole at the US Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes team-mate and title rival Lewis Hamilton.

Having seen his team-mate top all three practice sessions and the opening part of qualifying, the German delivered on his Friday promise of having pace in hand and it now means he is guaranteed to out-qualify Hamilton over the course of the season.

Rosberg showed the first glimpses of his true pace in Q2 as he topped the times whilst his team-mate complained about his brakes constantly locking up over the radio. It was the first time he had headed Hamilton all weekend and heaped the pressure on heading into the top ten shootout.

The German set the pace after the initial runs and found further time on his second set of tyres to extend his advantage over Hamilton who failed to improve, landing the first blow this weekend in the title fight.

“It’s been a great day, I’m very happy. With my engineers, I arrived at a car which I was really happy with,” said Rosberg.

“The wind was changing so that made it very challenging, it wasn’t easy to get everything right. But it’s the race which counts and I need to fully focus on tomorrow.

Williams driver Valtteri Bottas will start third on the grid but was nearly a second off the pace of Rosberg as Mercedes’ domination of the grid this season continued. Bottas will be joined on the second row by team-mate Felipe Massa ahead of Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull. World champion Sebastian Vettel will start from the pit lane in the second Red Bull after being penalised for a full power unit change ahead of the weekend. He completed just three laps in Q1 in order to set a time worthy of competing this weekend.

Fernando Alonso was the highest-placed Ferrari in sixth position ahead of Jenson Button, who will be shuffled down to 12th once a penalty for a gearbox change is applied.

Defending race and world champion Sebastien Vettel of Red Bull will start Sunday in pit lane because of a penalty for using a sixth engine this season

Full results:

Pos No Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
1 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:38.303 1:36.290 1:36.067 20
2 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:37.196 1:37.287 1:36.443 16
3 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1:38.249 1:37.499 1:36.906 19
4 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:37.877 1:37.347 1:37.205 20
5 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:38.814 1:37.873 1:37.244 17
6 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:38.349 1:38.010 1:37.610 16
7 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:38.574 1:38.024 1:37.655 17
8 20 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1:38.557 1:38.047 1:37.706 16
9 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:38.669 1:38.263 1:37.804 22
10 99 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1:38.855 1:38.378 1:38.810 15
11 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1:38.608 1:38.467 16
12 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1:39.200 1:38.554 16
13 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:38.931 1:38.598 16
14 26 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault 1:38.936 1:38.699 17
15 25 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault 1:39.250 10
16 21 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1:39.555 10
17 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:39.621 3
18 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:39.679 8
Q1 107% Time 1:43.999