Hamilton on pole at the Red Bull Ring

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) won pole for the Austrian Grand Prix with a time of 1'07''922 achieved in the last qualifying session held on a drying track. The Briton was half a second ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg who received a five-place penalty following his accident in practice. Nico Hulkenberg thus on the front row after having achieved the third fastest time by being the first to dare to fit slick tires.

Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) set the fourth time but the four-time world champion will only start in ninth position following his penalty. Jenson Button (McLaren) inherits third place ahead of Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari). Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) will start alongside Nico Rosberg who will only fall back four positions by taking advantage of the sanction imposed on Vettel. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) will start from the seventh row in front Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso), Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa (Williams).

The rain that occurred in the final minutes of the second qualifying session froze the positions. Fernando Alonso (McLaren) was the slowest of the session, failing behind Romain Grosjean (Haas). Esteban Gutiérrez (Haas) was the first eliminated, failing six thousandths behind Jenson Button (McLaren), last qualified for Q3. The Mexican who posted his best performance in qualifying is ahead of an astonishing Pascal Wehrlein (Manor) in 12th place.

The pilots Renault were the first eliminated in the first session. Kevin Magnussen failed just under three tenths behind Fernando Alonso (McLaren), the last qualifier in Q2, preceding his teammate Jolyon Palmer. Rio Haryanto (Manor) is 19th ahead of Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) who is ahead of the Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr.

Daniil Kvyat caused a red flag when he went off the track at the final turn after suffering a broken rear suspension following a kerb. His teammate Carlos Sainz Jr qualified for Q2 but suffered a mechanical breakdown. Sergio Pérez (Force India) was also the victim of a broken suspension due to going over the particularly formidable curbs on the Austrian track.

Austrian GP qualifying results