Championship leader lewis Hamilton will start the Austrian Grand Prix from pole position after edging his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in a spectacular end to qualifying on Saturday.
The defending champion left it late to clock a best lap of 1 minute, 8.455 seconds to beat Rosberg’s leading mark by 0.20. Hamilton’s 45th career pole put him in all-time equal third place alongside four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, who was third fastest for Ferrari.
Rosberg, who has won two races this season to Hamilton’s four, trails his teammate by 17 points overall.
Vettel, the only driver to have beaten the Mercedes pair this season when he won in Malaysia, still thinks Mercedes has too much in reserve when it counts.
It was a frustrating day for Ferrari, as Kimi Raikkonen failed to even make it into the second part of qualifying, despite posting the third quickest times in all three practice runs.
Grid penalties for Kvyat, Button
Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat and Mclaren’s Jenson Button received grid penalties for the Austrian Grand Prix. While Kvyat was handed a 10-place grid penalty for taking on a fifth engine, Button was handed a more severe punishment of 25 place grid penalty for taking a sixth engine. The Brit joins his teammate Fernando Alonso from the back of the grid for similar offence. Button will get additional time penalties during the race since he won’t be able to start from lower than 20th. Teams are allowed only four per driver for the season before incurring penalties.