Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid during a floodlit qualifying in Sakhir on Saturday, but in a reverse of the form seen during practice, it was Nico Rosberg who turned the tables on team mate Lewis Hamilton to grab pole position by nearly three-tenths of a second.
In Q1, the pack was shuffled as Sauber led a late charge onto the softer Pirelli tyre and were followed by everyone bar the Mercedes and Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg ended up heading the times with 1m 34.874s from the similarly shod Williams of Valtteri Bottas on 1m 34.934s and the other Force India of Sergio Perez on 1m 34.998s.