Rosberg grabs pole in the closing seconds

F1 Grand Prix, GP Great Britain, Silverstone Circuit

Rosberg will start tomorrow from first place on the grid. Hamilton looked set to take pole, but got caught out by a last minute rush of cars improving in the last sector.

Qualifying started in difficult conditions, with a damp and windy circuit, forcing everybody to start on intermediates. Sauber and Marussia were the first teams to come out, followed by the rest a few minutes later.

With the circuit drying, the Mercedes drivers were actively informing about the possibility to run slicks. In the closing stages of Q3, most attempted a run on slicks. This caught out both Ferrari and Williams, which drivers were shockingly knocked out of qualifying, helped by a yellow flag caused by Sutil, who got trapped in the mut. Red Bull barely evaded the same faith as Williams and Ferrari. Hamilton ended Q3 on top, followed by Rosberg.

Q2 again started on intermediates. Vettel goes too wide and see his time scrapped from the time table, forcing him to make an extra run. With the rain halted for a moment and as soon as the racing line became dry, everybody switched to slicks again. Bianchi, who passed to Q2, topped for a moment the time sheets. He eventually will fall back to place 12, still an honourable position given the car. Meanwhile edging closer to the end of Q2, Rosberg got stuck for a moment behind Gutierrez. Gutierrez tries to make room, goes with his slicks on a damp patch, spins around and slides backwards into the barriers. Conditions were very treacherous.

Q3 starts with everybody on slicks. With another shower incoming, most drivers left the pits fairly early. Hamilton ended in front of Rosberg and with track conditions worsening, he looked set to keep it. Vettel meanwhile had to abandon his lap.

But Silverstone wouldn't be Silverstone if it didn't show a fairly fickle session. In the closing minutes track conditions started to improve again. Drivers went out to have one last shot. The first 2 sectors looked miserable, with everybody 2-3 seconds off pole. But suddenly Vettel finds several seconds in last sector, jumping to P1. Rosberg finished on top. Hamilton assumed that the track didn't improve enough and abandoned his final attempt, which turned out to be a very costly error. He dropped down to P6.