Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso made the briefest of appearances in the first session of qualifying, knowing that they will be back at the rear of the field tomorrow. Nico Rosberg secured another pole position but was pushed to the wire by Max Verstappen, who secured his first front row grid slot in Formula One.

Elsewhere, Pascal Wehrlein did a great job in qualifying to get through to Q2, whilst the Force India duo also put in a good performance to finish sixth and seventh before penalties are applied.