Lewis Hamilton held his nerve to grab pole position ahead of Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg for Sunday’s British Grand Prix with a spectacular lap in the final seconds of an intense qualifying session.
The defending three-time World champion, who had his first flying run in Q3 deleted because he ran off the track, outpaced the championship leader and his rival Rosberg with a lap in one minute and 29.287 seconds on Saturday.
Rosberg escaped a grid penalty for taking an unduly slow lap during the qualifying. He was summoned to see the stewards after he was found to have exceeded the maximum time allowed for a lap between two safety car lines during Q1.
In a statement, the stewards said Rosberg had not been punished because he was not on an ‘in-lap’ when he set the leisurely time of two minutes and 26.444 seconds.
Instead, he was on a lap to cool down his tyres before starting a new flying lap. .
Starting Grid: 1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 2. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), 3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 4. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), 5. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), 6. Valtteri Bottas (Williams-Mercedes), 7. Nico Huelkenberg (Force India – Mercedes), 8. Carlos Sainz Jr (Toro Rosso – Ferrari), 9. Fernando Alonso (McLaren), 10. Sergio Perez (Force India – Mercedes), 11. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), 12. Felipe Massa (Williams-Mercedes), 13. Romain Grosjean (Haas – Ferrari), 14. Esteban Gutierrez (Haas – Ferrari), 15. Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso – Ferrari), 16. Kevin Magnussen (Renault), 17. Jenson Button (McLaren), 18. Jolyon Palmer (Renault), 19. Rio Haryanto (Manor – Mercedes), 20. Pascal Wehrlein (Manor – Mercedes), 21. Felipe Nasr (Sauber – Ferrari), 22. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber – Ferrari).
