Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton grabs pole in drying conditions in Austria, Rosberg P2 but pushed back by penalty; Nico Hulkenberg a splendid P3 for Force India

In a bizarre qualifying session in Austria that saw the Red Bull Ring’s excessive curbing cause rear suspension failure on several cars, including a spectacular accident by Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton took advantage of rapidly drying conditions after a rain shower in Q3 to grab the pole time. With one driver after another hurrying to change from Intermediate wet tires onto slicks, the leaderboard shuffled with each passing second in thrilling fashion, as each car that crossed the start-finish line seemed to go faster than the one that preceded it. But in the end it was Hamilton who shone the brightest, willing his Mercedes to the pole and denying a miracle top spot to sentimental and seemingly feasible aspirants like Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Ferrari’s Number 2, Kimi Raikonnen. Better yet for Hamilton, his teammate and Championship points leader Nico Rosberg, while taking second in terms of pure speed, will be forced to start back in P7 come race day due to a gearbox change necessitated by his own suspension failure in free Practice 3. So despite reestablishing himself after a run a poor finishes with his dominant victory in the European GP in Baku, Azerbaijan two weeks ago, the German has been put on the back foot again and sees his Silver Arrows teammate & archrival Hamilton threatening to sail away on this high speed circuit. Perhaps Nico will be praying for rain to open up some strategic possibilities come Sunday. Or perhaps he will be hoping that Hamilton takes one too many curbs of his own tomorrow and is forced to retire prematurely.

Despite not getting a coveted pole, Hulkenberg did manage a fortuitous P3 for the little Force India team and the even better starting position of P2 after Rosberg’s penalty, a fine opportunity for a car that has looked fast all weekend. Unfortunately his teammate Sergio Perez also suffered suspension failure in Q2 and will start from way back in P16. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel could not overhaul Hulkenberg’s time and was only fast enough for P4. But worse yet for the former 4-time World Champion, Vettel will also be pushed back 5 places due to a gearbox change. That will grant the advantage to teammate Raikkonen, who will start from P4 after qualifying P6. McLaren’s Jenson Button originally split the Ferrari duo with a standout P5, one of the few times the English veteran has outdone his teammate Fernando Alonso in quali all season (Alonso was knocked out in Q2 at P14). With all the penalties factored in Button will start P3, a great result for McLaren. The Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen qualified P7 and P9 respectively, while the Williams duo of Valtteri Bottas & Felipe Massa were P8 & P10. That could only have been very disappointing for team Williams when they were likely expecting their straight line speed to give them some advantage on this fast, short circuit.

While thankfully Kvyat was OK after his shunt, his car was a write-off and Toro Rosso had doubly disastrous day when Carlos Sainz’s engine let go shorty after the Red Flag period that Kvyat had caused ended. Let’s hope the powers that be figure out the curbing issues by tomorrow and we don’t see a raft of retirements due to breakage or something worse.

Top 10 Qualifiers for the Austrian GP:

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s Austrian GP airs live at 8AM Eastern on CNBC here in the States. After a very chaotic and unpredictable race weekend so far the main event should be nothing less than interesting. Hope to see you then!