British GP: Hamilton takes pole despite track limits scare

The FIA told drivers in the pre-race briefing that track limits would be enforced with zero tolerance at Turns 9, 15 and 18 – Copse, Stowe and Club.

Hamilton’s first laptime in Q3 was erased after he exceeded the track limits at Copse Corner on his first flying lap, a TV replay clearly showing he picked up understeer and missed the apex.

On his second attempt, Hamilton lapped in 1m29.287s to take his sixth pole of the season, and the 55^th of his career.

Teammate Nico Rosberg was three tenths slower and will start second, ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

Kimi Raikkonen will start fifth, with sixth-fastest Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel relegated to 11th when his five-place grid penalty is enforced for a gearbox change since it failed during FP3.

Story of Q3

Hamilton’s opening gambit was a 1m29.339s, not as quick as he went in Q2. But still his time was 0.267s faster than Rosberg’s 1m29.606s.

But Hamilton’s lap was delete for running wide and exceeding track limits at Copse.

Verstappen and Ricciardo were second and third at that point – over a second slower than Hamilton’s deleted time.

Hamilton went again early, to give him the chance for two laps, setting an even faster 1m29.287s.

Rosberg’s second attempt was a 1m29.715s, slower than his first run.

Niether Red Bull was able to improve at their second attempt, so Verstappen outqualifies Ricciardo for the first time.

Kimi Raikkonen qualified fifth, 1.5s off the Mercedes pace and two-tenths off a Red Bull, for Ferrari. Teammate Sebastian Vettel had a huge moment at Stowe on his first run, and only managed sixth.

Valtteri Bottas rises to sixth on the grid for Williams. He was half a second clear of Carlos Sainz’s Toro Rosso, who gained another place when Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India had its fastest time deleted.

So Sainz will start seventh, ahead of Hulkenberg.

Fernando Alonso, using Honda’s latest engine upgrade in his McLaren, had a time deleted for exceeding track limits at Stowe and will start ninth, as Force India’s Sergio Perez is promoted to 10^th despite failing to make Q3.

Perez and Massa fall in Q2

The big scalps who failed to progress to the top-10 shootout were Perez and Felipe Massa. Perez was just over a tenth slower than Force India teammate Hulkenberg and will start 11^th after Sainz made a last-gasp improvement.

Massa was half a second off Williams teammate Bottas, and starts 12th.

Romain Grosjean qualified 13^th for Haas, ahead of teammate Esteban Gutierrez.

Daniil Kvyat was 15^th for Toro Rosso, ahead of Renault’s Kevin Magnussen. Kvyat claimed Magnussen blocked him in the session.

Hamilton unleased a new circuit lap record of 1m29.243s, 0.7s faster than Rosberg.

Raikkonen suffered a big scare in this session when he spun at Club after running wide on to the kerbs on his out lap on his first lap, then locked up and went off at Village on his second run.

He regrouped and went sixth on his last effort.

Austria star Button eliminated in Q1

The big news in the first element of qualifying was Kvyat knocking McLaren’s Jenson Button out on the very last lap of the session, jumping to 15^th and shoving Button down into the drop zone in 17^th.

Button, who had a rear wing problem that cost him a second run, subsequently ran back to his car having alighted to go to the FIA weighing scales. But the pantomime was all in vain, as Magnussen was exonerated of having exceeded track limits on his quickest lap.

Fellow Brit Jolyon Palmer will start alongside him in 18^th for Renault, ahead of the Manors of Rio Haryanto and Pascal Wehrlein.

Palmer’s first flying lap was deleted for running wide at Copse, and teammate Magnussen likewise at Abbey. But Magnussen escaped with his final flying lap which put him safely into Q2.

Sauber’s Felipe Nasr suffered a huge slide at Stowe and will start 21^st. His teammate Marcus Ericsson did not take part in qualifying following his huge crash at the end of FP3.

Rosberg topped the session with a 1m30.724s, 0.015s quicker than Hamilton.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'29.287
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'29.606	0.319
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	1'30.313	1.026
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	1'30.618	1.331
5	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'30.881	1.594
6	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'31.490	2.203
7	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	1'31.557	2.270
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	1'31.989	2.702
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	1'31.920	2.633
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	1'32.343	3.056
11	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	1'31.875	2.588
12	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	1'32.002	2.715
13	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	1'32.050	2.763
14	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	Ferrari	1'32.241	2.954
15	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	1'32.306	3.019
16	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	Renault	1'37.060	7.773
17	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	1'32.788	3.501
18	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	1'32.905	3.618
19	Rio Haryanto	Manor	Mercedes	1'33.098	3.811
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	Mercedes	1'33.151	3.864
21	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari	1'33.544	4.257
	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari