Hamilton grabs pole in Austria

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton found a bit of extra speed when it mattered most to secure pole position for Formula One’s Austrian Grand Prix, where the British driver starts from the front for the seventh time in eight races this season and 45th in his career.

After edging his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in a spectacular end to qualifying on Saturday, Hamilton said “when it counted, I did what I need to do.”

The defending champion left it very late to clock a best lap of 1 minute, 8.455 seconds to beat Rosberg’s leading mark by 0.20 and his latest pole put him in alltime equal third place alongside four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, who was third fastest for Ferrari.

“I’d much rather have his championships than the pole positions,” said Hamilton, who is eyeing a third F1 title. “I’m working on that.”

It also completed a calendar year of poles for Mercedes, who were last beaten to pole here last year by Williams driver Felipe Massa.

After finishing quickest in the second and third practice runs, Vettel was hopeful but he qualified .355 behind Hamilton, while Massa was .737 adrift in fourth.

Vettel joked he was trying to find new ways to catch Mercedes. Asked what he was listening to on his headphones, the 27-year-old German quipped it was ‘Help’ from the Beatles.

After beating Rosberg’s time — but with Rosberg still having time for another lap — Hamilton went out again with only one minute left. It went wrong as he locked his rear tires and flew into gravel.

“Afterwards I was like ‘I’ve probably lost it there,’” Hamilton said. “It was a bad qualifying session for me generally. I’m grateful.”

Rosberg was hoping to beat Hamilton in qualifying for only the second time this season after securing pole at last month’s Spanish GP.

Rosberg, who has won two races this season to Hamilton’s four, trails him by 17 points overall. Vettel, third overall, still thinks Mercedes has too much in reserve.

“Generally Mercedes seem to be able to turn up the performance quite a bit,” he said. “There’s some work for us to do.”

Lewis Hamilton of Britain, front, and Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg of Germany, rear, are pictured during a pit stop prior during qualifying on Saturday.