Lewis Hamilton will start from the top spot for Sunday’s Austrian GP in Spielberg, Austria. This is his fifth pole position in nine races this season.
Hamilton’s pole was pretty much wrapped up before qualifying had even started, as both Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel knew they would be taking five-place grid penalties due to gearbox changes.
However, Hamilton has failed to lead into the first turn each time he has started from pole this season.
While Rosberg qualified second, due to his five-place penalty it will be Nico Hulkenberg starting alongside Hamilton on front row.
Sebastian Vettel qualified fourth but also has a five-place grid penalty, which will ultimately move McLaren’s Jenson Button up to third on the grid.
Both Button and Hulkenberg were able to qualify well as they were the first to switch to dry tires in the wet-to-dry Q3 session.
Rain in the closing minutes of the second qualifying session also mixed up the middle of the grid, allowing Jenson Button to make his way into the final session in his McLaren, and Pascal Wehlein to land a solid 12th-place starting spot in his Manor.
The first qualifying session came to an abrupt end when Daniil Kvyat’s right-rear suspension failed on his Toro Rosso heading into the final turn. While the session was restarted, no one could improve as the yellow flags flew when Kvyat’s teammate Carlos Sainz coasted to a smoky halt.
Jolyon Palmer and Rio Haryanto have been handed three-place penalties due to not slowing down for yellow flags.
Full qualifying results:
1. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes (+5 spot grid penalty)
3. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India
4. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari (+5 spot grid penalty)
5. Jenson Button - McLaren
6. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
7. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull
8. Valtteri Bottas - Williams
9. Max Verstappen - Red Bull
10. Felipe Massa - Williams
11. Esteban Gutierrez - Haas
12. Pascal Wehrlein - Manor
13. Romain Grosjean - Haas
14. Fernando Alonso - McLaren
15. Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso
16. Sergio Perez - Force India
17. Kevin Magnussen - Renault
18. Jolyon Palmer - Renault (+3 spot grid penalty)
19. Rio Haryanto - Manor (+3 spot grid penalty)
20. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso
21. Marcus Ericsson - Sauber
22. Felipe Nasr - Sauber (+3 spot grid penalty)
