Lewis Hamilton pulled off another last-gasp steal to deny Nico Rosberg pole position at the British Grand Prix on Saturday.
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Hamilton lapped with a best time of one minute 30.904 seconds, 0.063 quicker than Rosberg who missed all of Friday’s second practice, on the soft tyres. I was back sitting in the garage and I knew I couldn’t let the guys and the fans down, and I’m so grateful I got that final lap in. He faces a grid penalty, reprimand or fine.
Rosberg will line up alongside his team-mate on the front row for Sunday’s race but he was one third of a second slower than Hamilton.
Rosberg, who leads Hamilton by 11 points in the title race, was terse in his replies to questions.
It had been feared that Mercedes would introduce team orders here following the fall-out of Hamilton and Rosberg’s crash in Austria which boss Toto Wolff described as “brainless”.
Recovering from a spin in Q2 that very almost put him outside the top ten, Kimi Raikkonen battled back to out-qualify Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel, though the German will slip to 11th on the grid anyway after landing a five-place grid penalty for a pre-qualifying gearbox change.
But BBC F1 analyst Allan McNish said Ferrari were struggling, adding: “It is Red Bull who are going to take the fight to Mercedes on today’s performance”.
“We have therefore strengthened our Rules of Engagement to include much greater deterrents to contact between our cars”, Mercedes said Thursday in a statement following a team meeting.
German Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) came in third, while his compatriot Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), world champion for four consecutive times, came in fourth.
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Championship leader Rosberg and Hamilton will be free to race for the remainder of the season despite their final-lap collision at the Austrian Grand Prix.
