Rosberg ends Hamilton streak with pole

Mercedes AMG Petronas

Nico Rosberg ended Lewis Hamilton's streak of pole positions as he set the quickest time during qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Rosberg set two laps fast enough for top spot but it was his first - a 1:24.681 - that enabled him to top the session comfortably, 0.267s ahead of Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel was third for Ferrari while Valtteri Bottas claimed fourth position for Williams.

Toro Rosso built on its encouraging form by locking out the third row of the grid, with home driver Carlos Sainz Jr in fifth and Max Verstappen sixth.

Kimi Raikkonen - who admitted to struggling with the Ferrari SF15-T on Friday - could manage only seventh.

Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo ensured that both Red Bull drivers qualified inside the top 10, though the pair were split by Williams' Felipe Massa.

Q2 was a fairly quiet session as the five drivers who occupied the knockout positions early on remained in there throughout, though Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado both improved to 11^th and 12^th places respectively.

The gains made by Lotus left McLaren drivers Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button in 13^th and 14^th positions, while Felipe Nasr was 15^th for Sauber.

Marcus Ericsson failed to progress from the first knockout segment and will start the race from 16^th position.

Force India had a difficult day as Nico Hülkenberg could manage only 17^th position, a tenth of a second ahead of team-mate Sergio Pérez.

Will Stevens once again got the better of Manor Marussia team-mate Roberto Merhi to the tune of eight tenths of a second.