Qualy: Rosberg Wins Chaotic Qualifying

It was business as usual for Nico Rosberg in qualifying at Silverstone as he claimed pole position while the drying track caught out his team-mate.

Lewis Hamilton was holding onto provisional pole position by 0.194s over Rosberg when the rain began to fall with six minutes remaining in Q3.

Those drops slowed the track and it appeared as if qualifying would end with yet another pole position for Hamilton.

But, in the last minute, it all changed.

Heading out for a final run, Hamilton pitted instead of completing his flying lap while Rosberg went on to finish his.

That proved to be the pole position lap.

With the final sector much quicker than before, he clocked a 1:35.766 to beat Sebastian Vettel by 1.620s.

Jenson Button jumped to third ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.

Hamilton’s decision not to finish his lap proved costly as he dropped to sixth, some 3.466s down on his team-mate.

Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo were seventh and eighth ahead of the Toro Rossos of Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Eric Vergne, who also opted not to put in a late flying lap.

That, though, wasn’t the only drama of the afternoon.

Earlier the weather had caused chaos in the first qualifying segment as both Williams drivers and the Ferrari duo failed to progress.

With the entire field out on track in the final minute to put in a slick tyre run on the drying track, the rain again began to fall.

This resulted in twitches and slides for Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, a spin for Fernando Alonso at Brooklands and a slow lap for Kimi Raikkonen.

They qualified P17 to P20 with only the Caterhams of Marcus Ericsson and Kamui Kobayashi slower.

Bottas’ verdict: “Unbelievable.”

Meanwhile, Adrian Sutil finished qualifying in 16th place as although he had the pace in Q1, he ended the session with his Sauber beached in the gravel.

Sauber’s woes were aggravated when Esteban Gutierrez went off in the final minute of Q2. He went off backwards and hit the armco barrier with the rear of his car. He finished P14.

Times
01 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:35.766
02 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:37.386 +1.620
03 Jenson Button McLaren 1:38.200 +2.434
04 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:38.329 +2.563
05 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:38.417 +2.651
06 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:39.232 +3.466
07 Sergio Perez Force India 1:40.457 +4.691
08 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:40.606 +4.840
09 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:40.707 +4.941
10 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:40.855 +5.089
11 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:38.496
12 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:38.709
13 Max Chilton Marussia 1:39.800
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:40.912
15 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:44.018
16 Adrian Sutil Sauber No time
17 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:45.318
18 Felipe Massa Williams 1:45.695
19 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:45.935
20 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:46.684
21 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:49.625
22 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:49.421