 The third part of qualifying determined pole position and only the two Mercedes drivers set two timed laps. After he clocked in behind both Ferrari drivers in his first run, Rosberg improved to second place on his second time out, but was unable to challenge teammate Hamilton, who took the fiftieth pole position of his career. Every other driver was limited to only one timed lap and in the end, the two Ferraris of Vettel and Räikkönen locked out the second row on the grid ahead of Max Verstappen and Felipe Massa. Sainz and Ricciardo rounded up the top eight on the grid. Therefore, Q3 saw little running with the final positions determined very early on and drivers exiting their cars five minutes before the end of qualifying.
