Nico Rosberg will start the United States Grand Prix from pole position later today after beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton by a tenth in testing conditions.
The rain continued to cause problems, with the result taken from Q2 as the FIA decided against running the final top-ten shoot-out due to the poor weather.
The session began under wet conditions which gradually improved throughout Q1, but the rain returned for Q2 and things only got worse for the drivers, leading to a delayed and then finally cancelled Q3.
Rosberg was the fastest man during that session and will therefore start from pole ahead of Hamilton and the Red Bull duo.
Sebastian Vettel nearly failed to escape Q1 when he went off and hit the barrier, but slipped through in P15 before going fifth quickest in Q2. He will however serve a ten-place grid penalty for changing his engine.
Another driver who suffered trouble in Q1 was Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard went off and heavily damaged his car, causing a red flag and giving his mechanics a race against time to get his car repaired for the grand prix.
Fernando Alonso scored McLaren’s best qualifying result of the season with P11, though he will be promoted to ninth when Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen serve their penalties.
2015 United States Grand Prix (Qualifying):
# | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
01 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:56.824 | – |
02 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:56.929 | 0.105 |
03 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:57.969 | 1.145 |
04 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 1:58.434 | 1.610 |
05 | Sebastian Vettel* | Ferrari | 1:58.596 | 1.772 |
06 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:59.210 | 2.386 |
07 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:59.333 | 2.509 |
08 | Kimi Raikkonen* | Ferrari | 1:59.703 | 2.879 |
09 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:59.999 | 3.175 |
10 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 2:00.199 | 3.375 |
11 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 2:00.265 | 3.441 |
12 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 2:00.334 | 3.510 |
13 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 2:00.595 | 3.771 |
14 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 2:01.193 | 4.369 |
15 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 2:01.601 | 4.780 |
16 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 2:02.212 | |
17 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 2:03.194 | |
18 | Alexander Rossi | Marussia | 2:04.176 | |
19 | Will Stevens | Marussia | 2:04.526 | |
20 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 2:07.304 |