Hamilton grabs historic Pole at Silverstone, Rosberg P2; Massa 3rd fatstest in Quali for Williams

Englishman Lewis Hamilton thrilled the home crowd on Saturday by putting together a blisteringly fast lap at Silverstone to claim Pole for Sunday’s British Grand Prix. The current reigning World Champion and this year’s points leader, who only just turned 30 on July 1st, grabbed his 3rd Silverstone Pole and 46th overall, surpassing Sebastian Vettel for 3rd all-time. Hamilton now trails only Michael Schumacher (68) and Ayrton Senna (65) in the history of F1 Qualifying. Even sweeter, the performance also saw him besting his Mercedes teammate and archrival Nico Rosberg by .12 seconds. After the session the German challenger complained agitatedly of understeer late in Q3, just when he needed the maximum performance out of the car. Whether that was excuse making or an actual technical problem, Rosberg was left hoping for a repeat of his impressive performance in the Austrian Grand Prix two weeks ago where he also started from P2 on the grid but overtook Hamilton on track for the victory. But with Hamilton’s historic dominance in this his home race it’s a bit harder to envision Rosberg duplicating that feat tomorrow.

Team Williams out-performed Ferrari with their qualifying pace on the flat, fast former WWII airfield circuit, with the veteran Felipe Massa edging his Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas, P3 to P4. With the heat on Kimi Raikkonen after a season-long slump and two disastrous efforts in Canada and Austria, the Finnish former world champ was spurred to out-do his usually superior Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel, taking P4 to Vettel’s P5. It remains to be seen if Raikkonen can keep it together in a race, however, and it seems almost certain that his days at Maranello are numbered. On the other hand, while Vettel’s future looks assured, the 4-time former World Champion must be as nonplussed as the rest of the Scuderia at the loss of their fleeting advantage over Williams, not to mention their putative potential to challenge Mercedes for victories. It could be that Silverstone simply does not suit the SF15-T chassis and better days may return in the races to come at Hungary and the rolling Spa-Francorchamps circuit. But that being said, another weekend of finishing off of the podium is not going to make anyone at Ferrari happy whatever the rationale.

Young Russian Daniil Kvyat out-qualified his Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo, P7 to P10, and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz was P8, while Force India’s red hot Nico Hulkenberg grabbed P9. Race control was very strict enforcing track limits at the fast and curvy circuit, disqualifying the hot laps of several runners for putting all four wheels over the white lines. We’ll have to see how that effects the outcome of the actual race tomorrow so keep an eye out for penalties to potentially play an outsized role in this Grand Prix.

Top 10 Qualifiers in Great Britain here:

Complete Qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on NBCSports at 8AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to you then to find out whether Lewis Hamilton can join the 3-time winners club in England or whether Rosberg can spoil his party.