Hamilton grabs pole in a thrilling qualifying in Austria

World Champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) grabbed pole position for the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix at the final minutes of qualifying with a massive lap time over the rest of the field in a frantic yet thrilling rain-hit session in Spielberg.

Q1 was red flagged with the scary crash of Danii Kyvat (RedBull) caused by suspension failure while on the newly laid yellow kerb stones.

Rosberg (Mercedes) topped Q1 after a crash in Practice 3 with the Ferrari’s of Vettel and Raikkonen close behind. Hamilton was a bit slower and cautious in the initial stages.

As Q2 began, threat of rain loomed in the middle of the session and times started to drop in the second half with the track getting wet.

Q3 began with all drivers were on intermediates as  the rain stopped and the track still wet. Hulkenberg (Hulkenberg) was strong in these conditions and he immediately switched to slicks for the final time attack. All other drivers opted for slicks and super softs.

Hulkenberg was 1.3 secs faster than the previous top time and moved into provisional pole, but as the track started to dry and a dry line started to appear the lap times started to tumble with everyone going faster than their previous one. Vettel and Raikkonen were strong too and were in a pole attack as Hamilton was 300s of a second slower in his penultimate run due to a lockup.

As the session was drawing to a close, Hamilton gave in everything to put in a massively quick lap which was 1.3 secs faster than the provisional pole time of Sebastian Vettel. Rosberg and Hulkenberg went quicker than Vettel but were more than half a second slower than Hamilton.

Grid Penalties for Rosberg & Vettel 

Rosberg will take a 5 grid spot penalty for gear box change after the accident in Practice 3 and will start 6th while Hulkenberg on the Force India will start second on the front row alongside pole man Lewis Hamilton. Vettel also faces a 5 grid spot penalty for a gear box change.