Nico Rosberg takes surprise pole for Mercedes in 2013 Bahrain GP

Nico Rosberg claimed only the second pole position of his Formula One career, edging Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain on Saturday.

Despite the heat at the Sakhir circuit – track temperature was 42′C – there was cloud cover overhead and strong winds, which played a role in the track conditions.

Rosberg proved to be the man to beat in Q3 as the Mercedes driver posted a 1:32.543 in the early. Putting in another lap late in the session, the German bettered his time with a 1:32.330 to secure only his second pole position.

Sebastian Vettel got closest for Red Bull with a 1m 32.584s, just ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

Rosberg then made his pole absolutely certain, improving to 1m 32.330s to clinch the top spot by over 0.2 seconds.

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton was 0.4s slower in fourth place. He will lose five places for having a gearbox change prior to the session.

Fifth position will also change post-session. Mark Webber took the spot for Red Bull, but faces a three-place penalty for his collision with Jean-Eric Vergne in China.

Ferrari put Felipe Massa on hard tyres for Q3 and he took sixth place, followed by the Force Indias of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil. The latter only just made it into Q3 with a late charge.

Friday pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen was only ninth in his Lotus.

McLaren was ecstatic to see Jenson Button reach Q3 against expectations with a last-gasp lap. The Briton chose not to do a flying lap in the pole shootout.

The late Q2 improvements pushed Romain Grosjean’s Lotus down to 11th. The Frenchman was back in the pits at the end of the segment and his first lap had not been good enough.

The two Williams set exactly equal 1m 34.425s laps in Q1, but Valtteri Bottas had got there first, so he made it to Q2 – where he took 15th – while Pastor Maldonado was left in 17th.

Esteban Gutierrez’s troubles continued as he only managed 18th in qualifying, which will become last when his five-place penalty for crashing into Sutil in China is applied.

There was a change in form at the back. Driving the upgraded Caterham, Charles Pic got his team ahead of Marussia for the first time in 2013, as he beat Jules Bianchi by a full 0.9s.

Giedo van der Garde, in the older-spec Caterham, also outqualified a Marussia, pushing Max Chilton down to 22nd.