Nico Rosberg takes pole ahead of Lewis Hamilton in Spain GP

Nico Rosberg grabbed pole position with Lewis Hamilton second as Mercedes dominated qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. Mercedes had not shown their full hand in the practice sessions, but were blisteringly fast once qualifying began, taking their third straight pole position of the season.

Rosberg repeated his Bahrain pole in a brilliant Q3 performance in which he delivered two laps good enough for the top spot. His initial 1m20.8s benchmark proved unbeatable, but Rosberg still improved to a 1m20.718s with his last run just to be certain. His teammate Lewis Hamilton had to settle for second, 0.254 seconds adrift.

Formula 1 championship leader Sebastian Vettel was third for Red Bull, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari. Alonso’s team-mate Felipe Massa mounted a strong challenge for pole only to lose time in sector three and end up sixth. He will also have to see the stewards after the session having seemingly impeded Mark Webber’s Red Bull in Q2. The Australian subsequently qualified eighth, behind Romain Grosjean’s Lotus.

Lewis Hamilton had earlier starred in a thrilling end to Q2, throwing in a last-gasp lap that jumped him from a worrying 13th to a comfortable first, six tenths clear of the pack.

Sergio Perez also produced an eleventh-hour surge in Q2, getting up to seventh and then qualifying ninth. His McLaren team-mate Jenson Button could not match that – six tenths slower, he will start only 14th.

Toro Rosso had looked promising in practice and both Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne had a realistic shot at Q3, holding top-10 spots late on before being narrowly squeezed out.

They will share row six, ahead of Adrian Sutil, who could not join team-mate Paul di Resta in the pole session. The Scot took 10th.

Going into the final seconds of Q2, both Saubers had made it into Q3. But in the subsequent flurry of improvements, Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutierrez tumbled down to row eight. The Mexican could yet face sanctions for blocking Raikkonen in Q1.

Last year’s winner Williams’s plight deepened, despite its upgrades, as neither car got beyond Q1.

Twelve months on from his pole and win, Pastor Maldonado was only 18th – and accused of blocking by Button – while Valtteri Bottas was just one place ahead.

The back of the grid battle stepped up a gear with a very close tussle between Caterham and Marussia.

Giedo van der Garde finally emerged on top for Caterham, edging out Marussia’s Jules Bianchi by just 0.052s.

Max Chilton and Charles Pic were a few tenths behind having also had a sniff of ‘class pole’.