Spielberg (Austria): Defending world champion and series leader Lewis Hamilton secured the 45th pole position of his career on Saturday when he outpaced Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in a dramatic rain-affected qualifying for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix. The 30-year-old Briton survived a last-gasp spin at the first corner of his final fast run to stay on top thanks to 29-year-old German Rosberg following suit by running off track at the final corner in his final push for pole.
For Rosberg, faced with a long trudge back to the pits, it was an ignominious end to a frustrating top-ten shootout after he had appeared to be fastest for most of the session. “It was quite a difficult qualifying with the track conditions,” admitted Hamilton, who is now third, alongside four-time champion Sebastian Vettel in the all-time list of pole-winners. Only Brazilian Ayrton Senna on 65 and German Michael Schumacher on 68 have taken more poles.
“I was grateful I got my third lap in on the first run in Q3. I was pushing that bit extra on the next run and just locked the rears. “I wasn’t too concerned about losing pole at that time because I was trying to get the car going, but obviously afterwards I was thinking: ‘I probably lost it there.’ “Ferrari have really some great pace here so it’s going to be tough. Every little bit of time will count tomorrow.”
Hamilton took his pole with a best lap of 1:08.455, outpacing Rosberg by 0.2 seconds. Vettel was third fastest for Ferrari. For Mercedes, it was a 19th successive pole position in a run of dominance that left their rivals, Vettel apart, in some disarray. Hamilton was the first Briton to take pole in Austria since James Hunt in his title winning season of 1976. Brazilian Felipe Massa was fourth for Williams ahead of German Nico Hulkenberg, fifth for Force India, and Finn Valtteri Bottas in the second Williams.
Dutch teenager Max Verstappen continued his impressive rookie season by qualifying seventh for Toro Rosso ahead of Russian Daniil Kvyat of senior sister team Red Bull, Brazilian Felipe Nasr of Sauber and Frenchman Romain Grosjean of Lotus. The struggling McLaren Honda team was already swamped by problems with Briton Jenson Button, the 2009 champion, requiring a complete new power unit with gearbox and two-time champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso adding a new gearbox to his earlier new engine. This meant that both men are set for 25-place grid penalties for Sunday’s race.
