Hammy’s in Nic to close the gap
LEWIS HAMILTON kicked himself up the backside to reawaken his faltering dreams of a fourth world crown with a masterful surge to the front of the grid for today’s ninth round in Austria.
He eased the pain of his embarrassing flop last time out in Baku and blitzed his rivals in the rain-hit shoot-out to snatch a 54th career pole position in his 176th grand prix.
And to strengthen his chances of a 46th victory title leader Nico Rosberg, his bitter rival but Mercedes team-mate, will suffer a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change after making it up into second place around the 2.68m Spielberg track.
So, too, will four times champ Sebastian Vettel, fourth quickest in the Ferrari, but penalised five places for a gearbox change.
But the biggest shock of a dramatic afternoon of crashes and breakdowns and constantly swapping of places in the 12-minute finale was the blast into fifth place by former champion Jenson Button.
His McLaren, a spectacular failure so far this season, will start from third place for his best grid placing since the British Grand Prix in 2014. No wonder the regular also-ran, without a win in the last four years, whooped with joy as he crossed under the chequered flag ahead of a host of favourites in a rare ding-dong with places changing TED MACAULEY every lap of the shootout. And the surprises didn’t stop there with Force India outsider Nico Hulkenberg zooming through to share the front of the grid in second place.
Among all the ups and downs, it was a full-stride Hamilton who trod the safest and speediest path with a faultless flair that left his chasers without a hope of troubling him.
It also set up the fastest ever lap of the circuit – shattering legend Michael Schumacher’s time of 1min 8.337secs, with a blinder at 1:06.516. Hammy, still smarting from his lowly and probably worst fade-out in Baku, said: “I need to put that one behind me as it’s a race I wasn’t really in. “And here I needed to get back to the front in qualifying so I can do a much better job than last time.
“It is going to be tough but there are places to do something different – so that’s a good challenge.
“And I want to show the championship is not over – not by a long chalk.”
Rosberg, aware Hamilton is hot favourite to dent his lead of 24 points, said: “Baku was good for me. I found my sweet spot – and now I’ll have to do that again.
“But the opposition is getting stronger all the time with Ferrari, Force India Williams and Red Bull all improving.
“And from where I am on the grid I face some real hard work to get back up there to the front.”