Mercedes carried on showing why they are the top team in formula one this season as they finished qualifying with yet another 1-2 with Nico Rosberg in pole and Lewis Hamilton behind him.
The front two of Mercedes have been in full control for the entire weekend in Sakir and have been deserved with a front row lock-down on the grid for the race tomorrow. Rosberg took pole with a time on 1:33.185 as he looks to add to his 43 points that he has claimed already in the first two races. His Mercedes teammate Hamilton will start in second from the grid tomorrow as he was 0.279s behind Rosberg to complete the front row. Although Daniel Ricciardo received a 10 place grid penalty for his unsafe pit stop release, he finished third in qualifying but will start off in 13th on the grid.
But while the dominant Mercedes outfit continued to shine, defending champion Sebastian Vettel failed to make it into qualifying three as more problems mount for him as he hasn’t yet started his championship challenge.
“The final run for some reason was a bit more difficult, the rears were locking up. We had been playing around with it for quite a while – we are still not where we want to be but I don’t want to blame it on that,” rued the Red Bull driver. “There was a little bit more in the car which I couldn’t get to, so I am not happy.”
The surprise package of Valtteri Bottas continued to spark as he finished behind Ricciardo in fourth but due to the Red Bull’s penalty, Bottas will start the race in third – his highest position in his career. His Williams teammate Felipe Massa finished in eighth with an impressive Q3 from the pair. Jensen Button will start in seventh ahead of his 250th Grand Prix tomorrow as he looks to continue his good form this season with some sort of challenge tomorrow. His McLaren teammate Kevin Magnussen also impressed finishing in ninth in what has been a good start to his F1 career.
Ferrari also had a good Q3 with both of the drivers finishing in the top 10 with Raikkonen in sixth and Alonso in 10th. Sergio Perez was rewarded for his 19 completed laps in qualifying three with a fifth placed finish to make up the top 10 ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix
With the performances that Mercedes have given up to now, will anyone be able to stop them tomorrow and deny them a 100% winning start to the new season?
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