Nico Rosberg’s lap time of 1:40.480s was enough to beat his British team-mate and current points leader Hamilton by 0.386s, while the Williams Martini Racing duo of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were closer behind than anyone expected in third and fourth place.
After the two Mercedes and the two Williams cars, came the two Infiniti Red Bull Racing machines, with Daniel Ricciardo out-qualifying Sebastian Vettel by 0.626s, while Vettel’s 2015 replacement within the team Daniil Kvyat seventh for Scuderia Toro Rosso just 0.015s behind Vettel. This is Nico’s eleventh pole position of the season. It looks like a possible Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS podium in Abu Dhabi today.
Abu Dhabi Qualifying Times
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
| 1 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | GER | Mercedes | 1:41.308 | 1:41.459 | 1:40.480 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | GBR | Mercedes | 1:41.207 | 1:40.920 | 1:40.866 |
| 3 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | FIN | Williams-Mercedes | 1:42.346 | 1:41.376 | 1:41.025 |
| 4 | 19 | Felipe Massa | BRZ | Williams-Mercedes | 1:41.475 | 1:41.144 | 1:41.119 |
| 5 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | AUS | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:42.204 | 1:41.692 | 1:41.267 |
| 6 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | GER | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:42.495 | 1:42.147 | 1:41.893 |
| 7 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | RUS | STR-Renault | 1:42.302 | 1:42.082 | 1:41.908 |
| 8 | 22 | Jenson Button | GBR | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:42.137 | 1:41.875 | 1:41.964 |
| 9 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | FIN | Ferrari | 1:42.439 | 1:42.168 | 1:42.236 |
| 10 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | ESP | Ferrari | 1:42.467 | 1:41.940 | 1:42.866 |
| 11 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | DEN | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:42.104 | 1:42.198 | |
| 12 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | FRA | STR-Renault | 1:42.413 | 1:42.207 | |
| 13 | 11 | Sergio Perez | MEX | Force India-Mercedes | 1:42.654 | 1:42.239 | |
| 14 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | GER | Force India-Mercedes | 1:42.444 | 1:42.384 | |
| 15 | 99 | Adrian Sutil | GER | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:42.746 | 1:43.074 | |
| 16 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | FRA | Lotus-Renault | 1:42.768 | ||
| 17 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | MEX | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:42.819 | ||
| 18 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | VEN | Lotus-Renault | 1:42.860 | ||
| 19 | 10 | Kamui Kobayashi | JAP | Caterham-Renault | 1:44.540 | ||
| 20 | 46 | Will Stevens | GBR | Caterham-Renault | 1:45.095 |
