Sat: Mercedes, Ferrari, Williams

Lewis Hamilton claims his eighth pole position of the season 46th of his career as he takes P1 at Silverstone.

Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton: "It’s a special day and an extra special feeling getting pole on my home turf in front of all the fantastic fans that have come out here to Silverstone. They’ve been absolutely incredible, so a big thank you to everyone for the support. It hasn’t been a completely smooth weekend – I’d not quite managed to find the right balance throughout the practice sessions. Although it’s my favourite part of the track, it’s been tough through the middle sector in particular with the wind. But luckily it all came together in qualifying. That was such a buzz – having the car working underneath me and seeing all the flags waving out of the corner of my eye as I came round the lap. I’ve got my brother here too and I’ve seen so many messages on banners in the crowd and on social media building up to today. I can’t thank everyone enough for their support. I’m very, very happy with that one!"

Nico Rosberg: "My first run in Q3 was quick and I thought I had nailed it but, when I had a look on my dash, Lewis was just one tenth quicker which was very annoying! In the second run I was set to improve – but something felt wrong with my left front tyre. I had no grip, so we need to look into that later. I’ve had a tricky weekend so far with a few car problems – but it’s all still possible tomorrow as we have seen in the last race. Another big thanks to the boys in the garage. They had a lot of work to do again in the morning session to get my car back out after the issue. Also, it’s really great to race here in front of such massive crowds. The people clearly love racing and even cheer on the non-British drivers which is very cool to see, so a big hand for them too."

Williams
Felipe Massa: "It was a fantastic day for us at our home Grand Prix and it’s great to have us P3 and P4. I enjoyed fighting closely with Valtteri and exchanging lap times. The wind into Copse was really strong and that affected the balance of the car, so I made sure to be cautious and not to waste a lap by running wide. It’s very important for us to show that we have the pace to get both cars ahead of everyone except from Mercedes. Tomorrow won’t be easy but we are ready for it and it will be an exciting race."

Valtteri Bottas: "We knew how much we could improve today but we were still a little bit surprised it was so much and that’s a good thing because tomorrow could be a very good race for us. Of course you always want to be in front of your teammate but we had a good battle and Felipe improved a bit more at the end. It’s great to be in front of our closest Championship rivals with both of our cars. That is a really good starting point and we now have the upper hand for the podium fight."

Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen: "It was not an easy qualifying, with the strong wind the handling was not ideal and it was very tricky for everybody, because the conditions kept changing from run to run and from corner to corner. We know that when is windy it’s not very easy for us, we improved our car on that side but here it was still difficult to get the lap right, putting all the sectors together. Obviously we can’t be happy for fifth and sixth position, it’s a bit disappointing,but we tried our best and hopefully tomorrow we’ll do better. I don’t think we’re slipping back, it’s just the different conditions we had today. In the race we’ll see what is going to happen, we’ll push to gain some positions."

Sebastian Vettel: "It was more difficult than we expected so we’ll have to have a look at that, but clearly it’s not ‘clean’ from my side. I struggled a bit to find the right balance. Tomorrow could be a different story, because our race pace should be fine. Today was not the best day. Hopefully tomorrow will be an exciting race, we can do plenty of things, we have the pace. I know that is difficult to pass, especially the Williams as they have a good straightline speed, but we’ll see. Maybe we can find something for tomorrow. For sure it’s not the best starting position. In Q3 we were not happy with either run. The out lap was not great, I nearly crashed with Felipe in last attempt, I think there was a bit of confusion because Nico was going so slow…nobody to blame though. In the end I made a mistake in the final lap, but in general, we were not quick enough."