Nico Rosberg made it count when it mattered and took pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix ahead of his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Rosberg’s best Q3 time of 1:24.681 was done on his first run in the session and was good enough to secure him his first pole of the season. Hamilton, despite pushing hard could not go faster. Hamilton’s best time of 1:24.948 was 0.267s slower than Rosberg’s. It was give and take between the sectors for the two Mercedes drivers but Rosberg ultimately prevailed.

Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrai confirmed once again that they are the best of the rest. His time of 1:25.948 was 0.777s slower than Rosberg’s P1 time. Kimi Raikkonen seemed to struggle for pace during the qualifying session and was pushed down to P7 by the two Toro Rosso’s of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen who qualified P5 and P6 respectively.

Valtteri Bottas qualified in P4 for Williams with team mate Felipe Massa down in P9. Daniil Kvyat will start on the 4th row of the grid tomorrow in P8 for Red Bull with Daniel Ricciardo starting in P10.

Romain Grosjean will start from 11th on the grid for Lotus. He felt that he could have made it to Q3 but had front grip issues with the car. 2012 Spanish Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado will start start along side his team mate in 12th.

McLaren seem to be doing much better after the updates on their car and managed to get both cars through to Q2 for the first time this season. Fernando Alonso qualified in 13th and Jenson Button in 14th with Alonso 3.173s off Rosberg’s time.

Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericcson are 15th and 16th for Sauber. Force India are struggling with their updated 2014 car and will start tomorrows race from P17 and P18 with the two Manor cars in P19 and P20.