Rosberg takes pole in crazy qualifying session

Mercedes AMG Petronas

Nico Rosberg claimed pole position for the British Grand Prix during a crazy qualifying session at a damp Silverstone.

Rosberg set a time of 1.35.766 to beat Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel by over one and a half seconds during changeable conditions.

Jenson Button was third for McLaren while Lewis Hamilton was only sixth.

Q1 claimed some big scalps as a drying circuit flummoxed a few teams.

Williams remained in the garage for too long, which left Valtteri Bottas in 17^th position, ahead of Austria pole sitter Felipe Massa.

For Ferrari, it was a disastrous afternoon. Fernando Alonso spun during the closing stages of Q1 and ended in 19^th, ahead of team-mate Kimi Räikkönen.

Marcus Ericsson and Kamui Kobayashi rounded out the runners for Caterham.

The rain which fell at the end of Q1 lingered for the start of Q2 and forced the drivers to start the session on Intermediates.

As the circuit dried several drivers enjoyed a stint at the top of the times, before Hamilton and Rosberg restored the usual order.

Marussia briefly threatened to progress through to Q3 but faster rivals improved their times. Nevertheless, Jules Bianchi qualified in 12^th place, behind Romain Grosjean, and ahead of team-mate Max Chilton. Unfortunately for the Brit, a five place penalty means he’ll drop to 18^th position.

Esteban Gutiérrez set the 14^th fastest time but his penalty from Austria renders him to the back of the grid. The Mexican’s session ended in the barriers after he lost control of the car at Luffield. Team-mate Adrian Sutil made it into Q2, but was unable to take part after crashing out of Q1. Pastor Maldonado was the other casualty in Q2 and he stopped trackside with a Power Unit problem.

Q3 began in dry conditions but rain began to fall just as the drivers approached Stowe on their first runs. Jean-Éric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat briefly made it a Toro Rosso 1-2 before Pérez went quickest.

Hamilton, though, smashed Pérez’s time by over a second and the Brit was followed over the line by Rosberg. Ricciardo posted the fourth fastest time to eclipse the Toro Rosso drivers.

It looked as if that was the grid order as drivers failed to improve for their second runs across the first two sectors. But the majority found a heap of time in the final sector as Vettel smashed Hamilton’s time before Rosberg went even faster.

Button moved up to third, ahead of Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, pushing Hamilton down to sixth.

The Brit abandoned his lap at the end of the first sector, erroneously believing that there was no more time to be found.

Pérez ended in seventh, ahead of Ricciardo, Kvyat and Vergne.