Nico Rosberg took pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday with teammate Lewis Hamilton ensuring a Mercedes lockout of the front row.
Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest but the Red Bull driver must suffer a ten-place grid penalty for a pit-lane offence in Malaysia last weekend.
That leaves a second row featuring Finland’s Valtteri Bottas in a Williams and Mexico’s Sergio Perez of Force India.
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel in the second Red Bull was eliminated in the second qualifying session and will start from 10th place.
Rosberg, the world championship leader after two races, clocked 1min 33.185sec to edge Hamilton as Mercedes stayed on course for a third win in three races this season.
It was German driver Rosberg’s fifth career pole and first of this season after Hamilton had started first in Australia and Malaysia.
It has been 16 races since Rosberg, winner of the season-opening race in Melbourne, was last on pole.
“It has just worked well through the weekend, finding my way, making progress and getting through some issues,” he said.
“The challenge this weekend is that in free practice we ran in such hot conditions, and we sort of had to guess for the cold conditions (for qualifying).
“But it worked out well. I felt comfortable and got my laps together, so I’m very happy.
“I have good memories of this track, winning the GP2 championship and starting my first race in F1. I enjoy coming here and again, today, it’s suited me.”
After the error on his final run, Hamilton insisted he was far from disappointed, and instead praised Rosberg for pipping him to the top spot.
“Congratulations to Nico who has done a great job this weekend,” said Hamilton. He is improving and picking up the pace.”
As to his mistake, he added: “I locked up. You can’t always get it right, but generally I am happy for the team.”
Ricciardo, meanwhile, appreciates he faces a battle to scythe his way through the field to gain a respectable points position.
“I’m really pleased with the performance,” said Ricciardo.
“At the moment it’s the best anyone can do against the two guys (standing) alongside me.
“We’ve still some ground to make up on them, but I’m really pleased with qualifying.
“Unfortunately I don’t stay at the front, I’ve a bit of work to do, and we’ll move forward from there.”
