Rosberg posted a time of 1:41.983, 0.138 seconds ahead of the 2015 F1 World Champion.
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Briton Hamilton has already secured the Formula One title but Rosberg has won the past two races and will target a sixth straight pole position in Saturday’s qualifying of the season closing GP.
His pole lap-a resounding 0.377 seconds faster than Hamilton’s final effort, per the same source-was nearly an act of defiance, confirmation that Rosberg will no longer timidly fade away or hide behind a list of excuses whenever the odds are against him.
Force Indias Mexican Sergio Perez came in third, while Australian Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull was ranked fourth.
German Nico Hulkenberg was seventh in the second Force India ahead of Brazilian Felipe Massa, his Williams team-mate Finn Valtteri Bottas and Spaniard Carlos Sainz, who was 10th for Toro Rosso.
It was a Mercedes dominated practice session on Friday (27 November), with Lewis Hamilton taking the honours in FP1, while teammate Nico Rosberg took the honours in the afternoon session.
“I’ve generally been struggling with the vehicle all weekend”, Hamilton added.
Hamilton, on the other hand, has qualified into the front row in all but one of the 19 races this season.
Sebastian Vettel ended the day fifth for Ferrari, having also gone fifth-quickest in the opening session.
Hamilton, who sealed his third championship in October’s United States Grand Prix, is without a pole in six races and has finished second behind his team-mate at the last two rounds in Mexico and Brazil.
“It’s a good start to the weekend”, he said.
Rosberg is using an older engine than Hamilton at the season-ending race, but the German was comfortably quicker than his team-mate. “It is what it is and I just have to make the most of it”.
“We try every weekend to do our best, and this weekend we did not get it right”.
“No issues with the vehicle, but it wasn’t enough to go through”, he said.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Horner said: “We’ve entered the world championship, we’ve signed a contract for an engine, but I can’t tell you what it’ll be or called at the moment”.
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“It is a small mistake with a big outcome”.
