Baku Qualifying: Rosberg on pole as Hamilton crashes

Nico Rosberg played second fiddle to his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton during the three practice sessions of the European Grand Prix weekend, but when it mattered - in qualifying - the German delivered by claiming pole position while his title rival clipped the barriers and will start the first ever race in Azerbaijan from tenth on the grid.

Rosberg was composed and in control throughout the afternoon session, in Q2 he dipped into the mid-1:42s which was a second up on Hamilton at that point who was and out of sorts and clearly struggling.

Rosberg said afterwards, "It was great, one of the more challenging sessions out there. Everything worked out well. All weekend we have been building towards this and qualifying was really optimum."

"They've done a great job up to now, with the track especially. It was an exciting qualifying. It's one of the easiest places to overtakes so it should be an exciting race," he added.

A number of mistakes cost the reigning world champion time and tyres, putting him on the back foot during most of the session, with the resulting pressure perhaps contributing the error that ended his charge in Q3.

It was a forlorn Hamilton who spoke to media, "I couldn't tell you what the possibilities are for tomorrow. It's damage limitation from here. The team made a change to something overnight but I was just not on it today."

It was a case of mixed emotions for Sergio Perez as he qualified second best for Force India, but will have take a five place grid penalty due to a gearbox change as a result of his crash into the wall at Turn 15 in the final minute of FP3 earlier in the day.

Nevertheless the Mexican showed that he has handy pace around Baku Street Circuit and will be fancying a shot at the podium on race day.

He said, "To be able to make the qualifying after the crash... obviously I'm still a bit angry about mistake this morning. A mix of feelings. It was a very difficult session for me. not a lot of time after crash and to get the confidence back was great."

"The team deserve it more. Obviously with the penalty I start seventh but hopefully tomorrow we can have a strong race. I wasn't expecting to be as fast as this. We have to look forward for tomorrow," added Perez.

After Hamilton's car was cleared there were still two minutes to run in the session and Daniel Ricciardo signaled his intent by lining up at the front of the queue and when the track went green blitzed around third fastest, with Vettel setting an identical time - the tie break decision going to the Red Bull driver by virtue of being the first to set the time.

With Perez relegated five places, Ricciardo will thus start the race from second on the grid and Vettel in third and Kimi Raikkonen beside him in fourth.

On the timing sheets at the end of Q3, it was Felipe Massa in sixth for Williams, ahead of Daniil Kvyat who put in a good lap to claim seventh for Toro Rosso ahead of the second Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in P9.

The big casualty of Q1 was McLaren’s Jenson Button, who was eliminated in P19 behind the Manors of Rio Haryanto in P17 and Pascal Wehrlein. Behind Button were Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and the Renaults of Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer.

Eliminated in Q2 were Romain Grosjean in P11 followed by Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez and Sauber’s Felipe Nasr.

Q1 107% Time: 1:50.942