Lewis Hamilton took pole position after a dramatic end to qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix in which both Mercedes drivers spun off on their final attempt.
Hamilton's time of 1:08.455 was enough to beat Rosberg by 0.2s, but Rosberg was on a quicker lap when he spun at the final corner in the dying moments of the session. Hamilton had spun earlier in the lap at the first corner, meaning neither completed what should have been their fastest lap of the qualifying hour.
Hamilton ended up backwards in the run off area at Turn 1 after his car snapped under braking and spun him through 180 degrees. At that point Rosberg was just setting the fastest middle sector and looked on target to beat Hamilton's earlier time. He ran a touch wide in Turn 8 as he attacked the final two corners and then lost the rear on the entry to Turn 9, forcing him to correct the slide and go straight on into the run off.
Ferrari will be disappointed not to capitalise on the Mercedes mistakes with Sebastian Vettel in third, 0.355s off Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen failing to make it out of a damp Q1 session.
Felipe Massa took fourth for Williams ahead of an impressive lap from Nico Hulkenberg in the Force Inida. Valtteri Bottas was sixth while Max Verstappen was seventh and the quickest of the Renault-powered drivers, including the Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat directly behind in eighth. Felipe Nasr and Romain Grosjean rounded out the top ten.
Pastor Malondado missed out on a place in Q2 by 0.2s, but will start ahead of Marcus Ericsson and Carlos Sainz in 12th and 13th. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo also got knocked out in Q2 and with his ten-place grid penalty for an engine change will be sent to the back of the grid and incur a five-second time penalty to be served at his first pit stop. Fernando Alonso is facing a harsher penalty with his 25-place grid drop from 15th, which will see him serve a drive-through penalty in the race.
The damp track in Q1 caught Raikkonen out as he failed to set a good enough lap as the conditions improved and in the closing seconds of Q1, a number of drivers improved, dropping the Ferrari down to 18th with only the Manors setting slower times. He vented his frustration over the radio, saying: "How the f*** did that happen". Sergio Perez and Jenson Button missed out in Q1 too, but Button will face a drop to the back of the grid and a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for the various new engine components he has used this weekend.