Qualifying results - United States 2014 - Mercedes dominate, but it's an unusual turn at the top

Published 1 November 2014 by Christine

Vettel sat out most of qualifying — Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty

With fewer cars taking part, qualifying took on something of a new and unique form that was interesting to behold. Sebastian Vettel sacrificed one or two laps to make sure he was ready to race tomorrow, but the German will be starting from the pit lane after penalties are handed out. Adrian Sutil gave Sauber something to cheer about, scraping into the top ten. The team are still searching for their first points of the season and this could be their chance.

Meanwhile, at the top, Williams were best of the rest behind Mercedes but the inter-team battle at the German team took another turn. Lewis Hamilton has dominated all weekend so far, but couldn't string a cohesive lap together when it counted, allowing Nico Rosberg to snatch pole position.

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	1:36.067	20
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	1:36.443	16
3	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing	1:36.906	19
4	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing	1:37.205	20
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull Racing	1:37.244	17
6	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari	1:37.610	16
7	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	1:37.655	17
8	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren Mercedes	1:37.706	16
9	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari	1:37.804	22
10	Adrian Sutil	Sauber F1 Team	1:38.810	15
11	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team	1:38.467	16
12	Sergio Pérez	Sahara Force India F1 Team	1:38.554	16
13	Nico Hülkenberg	Sahara Force India F1 Team	1:38.598	16
14	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso	1:38.699	17
15	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	1:39.250	10
16	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber F1 Team	1:39.555	10
17	Sebastian Vettel	Infiniti Red Bull Racing	1:39.621	3
18	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	1:39.679	8