Rosberg on pole for British Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg is on pole position for the British Grand Prix after setting the fastest lap of the afternoon on his final run of a very wet afternoon in Silverstone.

The rain fell on and off for the entire hours’ session this afternoon, causing all sorts of chaos and mix-ups on the grid where teams struggled to strategize and plan accordingly. Ultimately it was Mercedes who got it right for at least one of their drivers’ as they were able to capture pole position as Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel qualified second in a turnaround for Mercedes, who find themselves without a front row lockout for the first race in some time.

McLaren’s Jenson Button placed third for his home Grand Prix in a surprise turn of events for the McLaren team at a much needed point in the season. Hulkenberg and Magnussen finished fourth and fifth whilst Lewis Hamilton, who looked good for pole position throughout the entire afternoon, placed sixth after falling behind on his final lap. Perez, Ricciardo, Kvyat and Vergne round out the top ten for what proves to be an exciting race tomorrow afternoon.

On a classically wet qualifying day at Silverstone, Caterham and Marussia were sent to the end of the pit lane one minute before the green light of Q1 to get a fast lap logged before the heavier rain started. Both Lotuses, Saubers, Marussias and Caterhams would ultimately get the first session underway with parts of the track direr than other and all cars starting on the intermediate tyre.

Within two minutes of Q1 starting, 19 of 22 drivers were on track, all on the intermediate tyre as just Williams and Ferrari remained in the garage. Mercedes Nico Rosberg requested to go straight onto the slick compound in order to set a fast lap but the team told him to get a safe timed lap on the intermediates in first. Teammate Lewis Hamilton then set the fastest time with a 1:34.676; full second faster that Ricciardo who occupied second place as the rain started to fall once more.

Into the second half of the first session, despite the rain drivers started to call for slick tyres. Jenson Button informed the team he was actively hunting for wet patches on the circuit to cool down his overheating tyres and Lewis Hamilton also asked to change to the slick compound. Teams then found themselves in a difficult position, trying to decide between using a fresh set of slicks versus not having that set for the Grand Prix tomorrow.

Mercedes finally agreed to the medium compound for Rosberg and Hamilton with just over 5 minutes remaining but remained in the garage until Rosberg would be sent out with four minutes remaining in the session after Button posted the fastest first sector of anybody on the slick tyre. Button quickly went into provisional first place but replays showed the Briton put all four tyres off track in the final corner rendering his lap time invalid.

The session ended in spectacular form when Sutil beached his car in the gravel bringing yellow flags out in the final section. Alonso also ran wide ruining his final fast lap, leaving him unable to improve on his fastest lap and stranded in the dropout zone. In an astonishing turnaround at the back of the grid, the chequered flag fell on Q1 leaving an array of big names unable to move into Q2.

The Williams of Bottas and Massa, who were so strong just two weeks ago in Austria, found themselves out in 17th and 18th after being unable to find any grip on the final laps whilst a major strategic planning error on Ferrari’s part found both Ferrari’s unable to move into Q2. Alonso will start from 19th tomorrow after spinning on his final fast lap with teammate Kimi Raikkonen just behind in 20th. The Caterhams of Ericsson and Kobayashi make up the final row of the grid as rival team Marussia secured both cars to the next session.

Q2 started with a new set of Intermediate tyres for everyone as the drivers head out early to ensure yet again that a fast lap was set before the conditions got wetter. Rosberg confirmed for all that intermediates were the correct choice for the circuit conditions and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo set the initial mark at 1:47.980 before being replaced by a marginally faster Pastor Maldonado and then Jean-Eric Vergne as the times continued to improve.

It was not long before the Mercedes’ of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg took their ‘rightful’ place at the top of the time-sheets, Hamilton posting a lap time of 1:44.639. As the track continued to dry though, Hamilton and Rosberg were bumped down as Sebastian Vettel went fastest, putting the four time World Champion at the top of the times for a rare occasion this season. The occasion was short lived though as Vettel was found to have put all four tyres across the white line on the circuit, meaning his fastest lap time was deleted and Hamilton was moved back into first place, leaving Vettel in the dropout zone with just five minutes remaining.

As the track continued to dry and drivers moved to the slick compound once again, the lap times also continued to drop. Before long, Rosberg and Hamilton found themselves in the bottom half of the top ten. Rosberg quickly rectified this though, moving himself back into provisional pole position as Hamilton followed, then taking provisional pole once more.

Q2 ended exactly in the same way that Q1 finished though, with a Sauber off track causing a yellow flag. Esteban Gutierrez crashed the car coming out of Brooklands, damaging his rear wing and brining an abrupt end to his session. Unable to improve on his time, he will start tomorrows’ race from 14th place whilst teammate Adrian Sutil did not move from P16 after being unable to run in Q2.

Q2’s dropouts also included Grosjean in P11, the Marussia duo of Bianchi and Chilton in P12 and 13 and Pastor Maldonado in 15th.

Q3 started dry, but quickly turned wet again as once more the rain started to fall. This played to a huge advantage to Sergio Perez, Daniil Kvyat, Vergne and Ricciardo who managed to get a fast lap in before the circuit got too wet. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg made it out just in time too, quickly taking first and second place respectively.

Sebastian Vettel reported to the team that it was getting wetter on track and would prefer to run a fast lap on intermediates. Told to stay out by the team, he ignored orders and bailed on the lap. Meanwhile Button was told to box and wait until the end of the session before running another lap to see what the weather did. This brought silence to the track as all drivers pit to see what the weather did. Thing got underway once more with just over two minutes remaining as Sebastian Vettel quickly got onto track to set his one and only fast timed lap of the session.

Vettel did go fastest, but was quickly replaced by Nico Rosberg who snatched pole as the chequered flag fell. Teammate Lewis Hamilton was left in a disappointing sixth place after a disastrous and unplanned final fast lap saw the Brit have to abort his final lap due to the wet conditions whilst Vettel and Button make up second and third to start tomorrows Grand Prix.
The 2014 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix starts tomorrow, July 6th, at 13:00 local time.