Hami to lead home race
Silverstone (United Kingdom), July 15: Lewis Hamilton stormed to a fifth pole position for the British Grand Prix with a devastating lap in a tense and rain-affected qualifying session on Saturday.
The three-time world champion thrilled the home fans with a stunning lap of 1min 26.600sec in the closing stages to outstrip his rivals by more than half a second with Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari taking second.
“You always try to save the best till last,” said Hamilton, who faced a stewards’ inquiry for allegedly blocking Romain Grosjean. “I felt very comfortable in these conditions - they are the conditions we grew up racing in here in England.”
Hamilton drew level with Jim Clark’s 50-yearold record of five British poles and registered the 67th of his career, one shy of the outright record held by Michael Schumacher.
He will be seeking his fourth successive victory at Silverstone and record-equalling fifth overall in Sunday’s race. He also became the first man to reel off three successive poles at the British race since 1996 champion Damon Hill.
“This is definitely the best position to start from,” said Hamilton. “But I need to do it tomorrow for these fans here. They are amazing.”
Championship leader Sebastian Vettel was left frustrated in third in the second Ferrari ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes, although the Finn faces a fiveplace grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.
Max Verstappen was fifth for Red Bull ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Renault, Sergio Perez and his Force India teammate Esteban Ocon.
Stoffel Vandoorne took an encouraging ninth for McLaren ahead of Grosjean of Haas.
The session began in cool conditions with rain intensifying.
Daniel Ricciardo clocked an early lap in 1:42.966 to set the pace, but his luck soon ran out when he suffered a turbo failure and parked on the Luffield exit road.
This prompted a red flag for a five-minute delay to remove his vehicle before the action resumed.
As the circuit dried, the times tumbled with wild movements of positions. Hamilton, Vettel and then Verstappen topped the lists before Alonso, after a late switch to slicks, clocked the best time for McLaren.
In Q2, Raikkonen set the pace before Hamilton, Hulkenberg and then Bottas trimmed the time considerably as the track dried.
Once again, Vettel found reason to grumble on his team radio when he claimed he was blocked by Perez.
But stewards promptly decided no investigation was warranted and Vettel went fastest before Hamilton and Bottas regained the top places ahead of the final drama.