Nico Rosberg takes Pole Position for the European GP

In Qualifying for the European GP in Baku on Saturday, Nico Rosberg claimed Pole Position ahead of Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo as Lewis Hamilton crashes in Q3.

With Lewis Hamilton looked the quicker of the two Mercedes drivers throughout the practice sessions, but when it came to qualifying he made two uncharacteristic mistakes while attempting hot laps in Q3.

After an earlier error in Q2, he entered the pole position shootout with just one set of fresh super-soft tyres and on his first attempt at a flying lap locked up at Turn 15 and took to the run-off area.

The mistake was a setback, but despite the two flatspots on his front tyres, a front row position was still well within his grasp.

He had enough fuel to stay out on track for a second attempt and set an impressive time in sector one to rival Rosberg. However, as he exited the complex of corners around Baku’s Old City, Hamilton clipped the wall on the apex of Turn 11 and broke his front-right suspension.

The incident caused a red flag with two minutes remaining on the clock, but such was the one-lap advantage of the Mercedes that the mistake effectively handed Rosberg pole position there and then.

But it was Nico Rosberg who claimed Pole Position for the European GP with a lap time of 1.42.758 ahead of Sergio Perez in second place who was 0.757 seconds behind him (but takes a five place grid penalty and ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in third place who was 1.208 seconds behind Rosberg.

Sebastian Vettel qualified in fourth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in fifth place, Felipe Massa in sixth place, Danill Kvyat in seventh place, Valtteri Bottas in eighth place, Max Verstappen in ninth place and Lewis Hamilton who rounded off the top ten finishers.

Romain Grosjean just missed out on the top ten and qualified a brilliant eleventh place for Haas F1 ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in twelfth place who has communication problems with his engineer. But he was ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr in thirteenth place, Fernando Alonso in fourteenth place and Esteban Gutierrez in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Felipe Nasr qualfied in sixteenth place ahead of Rio Haryanto in seventeenth place, Pascal Wehrlein in eighteenth place, Jenson Button in nineteenth place, Marcus Ericsson in twentieth place, Kevin Magnussen in twenty-first place and Jolyon Palmer in twenty second place.

The classification of Qualifying for the European GP is as follows:-

1.Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.42.758
2.Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 0.757*
3.Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 1.208s
4.Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1.208s
5.Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1.511s
6.Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.725s
7.Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1.959s
8.Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 2.488s
9.Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 2.812s
10.Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 19.196s
11.Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1.44.755
12.Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.44.824
13.Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.45.000
14.Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1.45.270
15.Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1.45.349
16.Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.46.048
17.Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, 1.45.665
18.Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 1.45.750
19.Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.45.804
20.Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.46.231
21.Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1.46.348
22.Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1.46.394

Sergio Perez takes a five place grid penalty for changing his gearbox after an incident in FP3.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa