F1 United States Grand Prix: Rosberg beats Hamilton for pole

Nico Rosberg took the first step in turning tables in his favour by beating Mercedes AMG F1 teammate and chief championship rival Lewis Hamilton for pole position in today’s qualifying session for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Hamilton arrived in qualifying on a high note, having completed a practice sweep over at a circuit he has done well before. But from Q2 onwards, it was Rosberg who had the upper hand and in the end, he lapped his W05 Hybrid in 1:36.067 to take his ninth pole position of the F1 season by four tenths off a second.

Behind the Mercedes duo came the Williams - also powered by Mercedes - of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa with the Brazilian outpaced by Bottas for the first time this weekend.

Daniel Ricciardo did a stellar job to qualify his Red Bull in fifth place as the highest non-Mercedes powered car on the grid. He will be joined on the third row of the grid by Ferrari’s former double F1 champion Fernando Alonso who is yet to reveal his much discussed plans for 2015.

The McLarens didn’t look as strong as they did last time out in Sochi with cooler conditions clearly not suiting the MP4-29. However, both the cars safely made it to the top 10 with Jenson Button putting his car in seventh place and Kevin Magnussen qualifying just behind in eighth. Button, however, is set to drop five places on the grid for a gearbox change.

Fifth row of the grid will be shared by the Ferrari of 2007 F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen and the Sauber driven by Adrian Sutil who secured teams first entry into Q3 all season long. With Marussia not participating in the race, the Hinwil based squad will be fancying its chances of stealing ninth place in the constructors standings.

Neither of the Force Indias - who are reportedly considering a boycott of the race if F1 does not sort out its financial disparity towards the bigger teams - made the cut into Q3 despite bringing a modest update to their car at Austin. Sergio Perez qualified in 13th place while Nico Hulkenberg was 14th fastest in qualifying.

Romain Grosjean couldn’t get a lap together and will start dead last, albeit 17th on the grid following the demise of two teams and Sebastian Vettel’s pitlane start penalty for a change of all six elements of his power unit.

Interestingly, Rosberg managed to better last year’s pole time by three tenths off a second - partly because of use of softer tyres and partly because of the efforts team have put in extracting the most out of the new generation of F1 cars.

The German has a bigger task in his hands tomorrow with race victory the best way to reduce the 17 points deficit to the F1 championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

F1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING RESULTS - TOP 10

1) Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:36.067
2) Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:36.443 +0.376
3) Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:36.906 +0.839
4) Felipe Massa Williams 1:37.205 +1.138
5) Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:37.244 +1.177
6) Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:37.610 +1.543
7) Jenson Button McLaren 1:37.655 +1.588
8) Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:37.706 +1.639
9) Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:37.804 +1.737
10) Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:38.810 +2.743