Rosberg clinches his ninth Pole Position at Austin

Yesterday afternoon we saw Nico Rosberg clinching his ninth Pole Position of the season in Austin ahead of his team mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas who was third fastest.

Also, Jenson Button takes a five place grid penalty into qualifying for changing his gearbox. Sebastian Vettel will be starting from the pit lane in the race on Sunday due to changing his power unit and gearbox on his Red Bull RB10 and also Daniil Kvyat will take a ten place grid penalty for taking his seventh engine change of the year. Kvyat will serve the first five places of his penalty this weekend in Austin and will serve the following five next weekend in Brazil.

Due to Caterham and Marussia withdrawing from the Grand Prix this weekend and next weekend in Brazil, qualifying has been revised. With four cars now being eliminated in Q1 and Q2 and with Q3 unchanged, the pressure is on the drivers to deliver.

We saw during Q1 that Romain Grosjean locked up during the session while trying to go quicker and had to go off the track. Luckily Grosjean was able to continue during the session but lost the chance to get out of Q1.

But it was Nico Rosberg who took his ninth Pole Position at the United States Grand Prix with a blisteringly quick lap time of 1.36.067 and was 0.3 seconds ahead of his team mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton who finished ahead of Valtteri Bottas in third place and was 0.839 seconds behind the Mercedes drivers.

Felipe Massa qualified in fourth place ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in fifth place, Fernando Alonso in sixth place and Jenson Button in seventh place. However, Button will drop five places down the grid due to changing his gearbox and will start the race on Sunday in twelfth place.

Kevin Magnussen qualified in eighth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in ninth place and Adrian Sutil who rounded off the top ten finishers and was the surprise of the session. This is the first time this season that Sauber and Sutil have made it to Q3 and put in a strong performance to achieve it.

Pastor Maldonado qualified in eleventh place ahead of Sergio Perez in twelfth place, Nico Hulkenberg in thirteenth place and Daniil Kvyat in fourteenth place. But Kvyat will drop five places due to changing his engine and will start the race in eighteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Jean-Eric Vergne qualified in fifteenth place after suffering engine problems during FP3 ahead of Esteban Guiterrez in sixteenth place, Sebastian Vettel in seventeenth place (But he will start from the pitlane) and Romain Grosjean in eighteenth place.

The classification of qualifying at the United States Grand Prix is as follows below:-

Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1.36.067s
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 0.376s
Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 0.839s
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1.138s
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1.177s
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1.543s
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1.588s
Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1.639s
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1.737s
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 2.243s
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1.38.467s
Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1.38.554s
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1.38.598s
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1.38.699s
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1.39.250s
Esteban Guiterrez Sauber-Ferrari 1.39.555s
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1.39.621s
Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1.39.679s

[NB: Jenson Button will start the race in twelfth place after taking a five place grid penalty for changing his gearbox. Also Sebastian Vettel will be starting from the pitlane and Daniil Kvyat will start the race in eighteenth place after taking the first half of ten place grid penalty for taking his seventh engine change].

Sarah Jones