"Angry" Rosberg takes pole in Mexico

Nico Rosberg has taken his 4th consecutive pole of the 2015 Formula 1 season at Mexico, beating his team mate to the top by just 2 tenths of a second. In a post qualifying interview, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Toto Wolff described to us that Rosberg took pole because he was "angry". It was an impressive effort after Hamilton was on top of him on in both Q1 and Q2.

Pole sitter Nico Rosberg (right).

It was an interesting and entertaining qualifying session(s) and sadly for McLaren's Jenson Button he was out before the first session even began. His car had a problem that the team couldn't identify and with him already receiving a 50 place grid drop they figured he would be starting from the back either way.

Into Q1 and Mercedes were on the pace quickly whilst Red Bull and Ferrari chose to save a set of mediums and went straight to soft tires. Most teams believe that the medium compound will be the preferred race tires. At the end of Q1 Button, Stevens, Rossi, Nasr and Alonso were all knocked out. No surprises there.

Valtteri Bottas in action.

Heading into Q2 we began to see more pace from Mercedes, Red Bull and Williams. Force India looked strong enough to challenge for Q3 but would need to overcome Toro Rosso and Lotus. Early in Q2 Kimi Raikkonen's session was ended with brake problems after he spun at Turn 1. This means he is likely to be starting from 18th or 17th on Sunday. It was unlucky for Kimi as he is in desperate need of a strong result. Towards the end of Q2 the rain began to spit lightly and many thought that Q3 would be an inters session, pushing Red Bull into a strong position. Q2 ended with Raikkonen, Ericsson, Maldonado, Grosjean and Sainz in the drop zone. This saw both Force India's, Red Bulls and 1 Toro Rosso (Verstappen) surprisingly into Q3.

Pastor Maldonado goes through the difficult stadium section on route to his P13 grid slot.

The rain stopped though and Q3 was dry. It saw Mercedes out straight away with Rosberg going faster than Hamilton. Hamilton bounced back to go fastest on his 2nd lap with Rosberg to swiftly reply with an even faster lap. Something seemed to surprisingly click for Nico Rosberg as he looked on another level than his rivals. Towards the end of the session, Hamilton didn't improve thus handing pole position to Rosberg. Behind them Sebastian Vettel was in third and was "giving it everything" but it wasn't enough as he was quite far off Mercedes pace. He finished 3rd. The altitude of the track continued to bring Red Bull into play at Kvyat out qualified team mate Ricciardo for 4th. A distance 6th and 7th was Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa for Williams respectively. The Williams never looked threatening as they struggled for grip through the slow stadium section. Verstappen was alone in 8th and will be looking to cause and upset in the race. Rounding out the top 10 was both Force India's with local hero Sergio Perez ahead of team mate Hulkenberg. Force India are confident that there race pace is more impressive and now they shift full attention to Sunday where they will be looking to cause a stir in the points.

Fans out in force for local hero Sergio "Checo" Perez.

The official order without penalties applied is:

1) Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
2) Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
3) Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
4) Daniil Kvyat - Red Bull Racing-Renault
5) Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-Renault
6) Valtteri Bottas - Williams-Mercedes
7) Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes
8) Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso-Renault
9) Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
10) Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes
11) Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso-Renault
12) Romain Grosjean - Lotus-Mercedes
13) Pastor Maldonado - Lotus-Mercedes
14) Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
15) Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari (5 PLACE GRID PENALTY)
16) Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda
17) Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari
18) Alexander Rossi - Manor-Ferrari
19) Will Stevens - Manor-Ferrari
20) Jenson Button - McLaren-Honda (50 PLACE GRID PENALTY)

So what should we be watching for in tomorrows race? Firstly, Turn 1, lap 1. We saw it in Japan and last time out in the US. Lewis Hamilton isn't afraid to get dirty and aggressive. I personally thought that in the US his wheels clearly weren't on full lock and the move on Rosberg was misjudged and wrong. However the run to Turn 1 in Mexico is just a little under 1km and slip stream should see 2 cars going through there side by side. Further back, can Williams get a jump on the Renault powered cars and and can Force India truly bounce back from a disappointing qualifying? Find out tomorrow when the 2015 Mexican Grand Prix gets underway!

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