Nico Rosberg took pole in the first ever night Bahrain race, ahead of his Mercedes stable-mate Lewis Hamilton. Daniel Ricciardo went third fastest, with Valtteri Bottas fourth and Sergio Perez fifth.

Hamilton had been aiming for his 30th pole in F1, but was thwarted by his team-mate, after pulling out of a hot lap after his error at turn one.

Sebastian Vettel was unable to make it into Q3 for the second time this season after a spin in the third practice session, and was unable to contain his frustration at missing out.

But it was the Mercedes drivers who dominated qualifying for the third time in the opening three races, with Hamilton and Rosberg leading the way in all three sessions.

It was the first dry qualifying of the season, and occured off the back of world champion Vettel spinning off in P3, ensuring the German would go into qualifying blind.

Pastor Maldonado was just pipped by his beleagured Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean at the end of the first session, and the Venezuelan crashed out in Q1 again with the Enstone squad able to get one of their cars into the second session.

But the Frenchman's joy was short-lived, as he didn't manage to get back out for a timed lap in Q2 until the very last, forcing a 16th-placed finish.

Hulkenburg was performing well for Force India, but not quite well enough to squeeze into Q3, with Raikkonen the beneficiary of the German unable to go quicker on his final lap.

Vettel complained of downshift issues for the duration of the day, and had a face like thunder when he was unable to progress into the top-ten shootout.

In Q3, Bottas set the earliest pace, but it didn't last long, with Rosberg going over a second quicker moments later. Crucially, the German stayed ahead of team-mate Hamilton by three quarters of a second.

However Williams' positive start saw them move to 3rd and 5th respectively after the first round of laps, within a second and a half of the provisional pole pace.

Only Raikkonen hadn't recorded a lap with three minutes remaining, but the Finn headed out with just a few minutes remaining, aiming to get one hot lap in. It saw him move fifth, before being bumped down to sixth by Daniel Ricciardo, who moved into third.

But by virtue of the Australian's 10-place grid penalty, all of the top 13 moved up a place as he fell to 13th on the grid, with Bottas arguably the star of the session. He will start third, behind the Mercedes men.

Driver Car Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1 Nico Rosberg 6 Mercedes 1:35.439 1:33.708 1:33.185
2 Lewis Hamilton 44 Mercedes 1:35.323 1:33.872 1:33.464
3 Daniel Ricciardo* 3 Red Bull 1:36.220 1:34.592 1:34.051
4 Valtteri Bottas 77 Williams 1:34.934 1:34.842 1:34.247
5 Sergio Perez 11 Force India 1:34.998 1:34.747 1:34.346
6 Kimi Raikkonen 7 Ferrari 1:35.234 1:34.925 1:34.368
7 Jenson Button 22 McLaren 1:35.699 1:34.714 1:34.387
8 Felipe Massa 19 Williams 1:35.085 1:34.842 1:34.511
9 Kevin Magnussen 20 McLaren 1:35.288 1:34.904 1:34.712
10 Fernando Alonso 14 Ferrari 1:35.251 1:34.723 1:34.992
11 Sebastian Vettel 1 Red Bull 1:35.549 1:34.985  
12 Nico Hulkenburg 27 Force India 1:34.874 1:35.116  
13 Daniil Kvyat 26 Toro Rosso 1:35.395 1:35.145  
14 Jean-Eric Vergne 25 Toro Rosso 1:35.815 1:35.286  
15 Esteban Gutierrez 21 Sauber 1:36.567 1:35.891  
16 Romain Grosjean 8 Lotus 1:36.654 1:35.908  
17 Pastor Maldonado 13 Lotus 1:36.663    
18 Adrian Sutil 99 Sauber 1:36.840    
19 Kamui Kobayashi 10 Caterham 1:37.085    
20 Jules Bianchi 17 Marussia 1:37.310    
21 Marcus Ericsson 9 Caterham 1:37.875    
22 Max Chilton 4 Marussia 1:37.913

*Daniel Ricciardo will serve ten-place grid penalty