Barcelona: Nico Rosberg ended his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton’s run of domination in qualifying this season when he secured his first pole position of the year in Saturday’s qualifying session for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
The 29-year-old German produced a fastest lap in one minute and 24.681 seconds to outpace the defending world champion by three-tenths of a second on a hot afternoon at the Circuit de Catalunya where Hamilton won from pole last year.
His lap was quicker than Hamilton’s 2014 pole time and ended the 30-year-old Briton’s run of four straight poles this year.
Rosberg now needs to convert that advantage into a first win since last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix to reduce Hamilton’s 27-point lead in the title race.
Four-time champion Sebastian Vettel was third-fastest for Ferrari ahead of Finn Valtteri Bottas of Williams, new home hero Carlos Sainz and his Toro Rosso team-mate, Dutch teenager Max Verstappen.
Another Finn, Kimi Raikkonen was down in seventh for Ferrari ahead of Russian Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull, Brazilian Felipe Massa in the second Williams and Australian Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull.
There was good news for the local fans as the Spanish Grand Prix will be held in Barcelona until 2019 as organisers have renewed the contract with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone by three years.
The announcement came ahead of the 25th edition of the race on the Circuit de Catalunya set for Sunday. The previous contract was until 2016.
Circuit boss Vicenc Aguilera spoke of “a fruitful relationship with Formula One” and added “we look forward to the next 25 years.”
