By Jay Khan, July 5, 2014
Lewis Hamilton was so confident of claiming pole position at his home track at the British Grand he decided to abandon his final qualifying lap as session three was coming to an end.
Believing the wet/changeable weather conditions were too tricky to improve lap times the Mercedes driver returned to the pits comfortably in pole position for Sunday’s race as the chequered
flag was raised to signal the end of qualifying, the remaining nine had other ideas.
Hamilton slipped down the order to sixth at the blink of an eye as the remaining top ten drivers benefited from a drying track and Hamilton’s agony was in stark contrast to Rosberg’s ecstasy.
Hamilton’s team mate and arch rival for this years drivers title, went on to clinch pole position, with the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel 2nd and the McLaren-Mercedes of Jenson Button 3rd.
Hamilton cut a forlorn figure as he was interviewed just after the session, hardly able to comprehend what had occurred eventually declining to comment any further, lost in his thoughts and lost for words.
It was a bitter blow for Hamilton as Nico Rosberg seems to have the upper hand on the Englishman who is still the favorite to win this years championship. Hamilton’s self pity was no match for the Ferrari team who continued their tepid season thus far, Alonso and Raikkonen didn’t even make it into session two of qualifying preferring 19th and 20th on the grid as they simply by screwed by the weather.
Pos
|
No
|
Driver
|
Team
|
Q1
|
Q2
|
Q3
|
Laps
|
| 1 |
6 |
Rosberg |
Mercedes |
1:40.380 |
1:35.179 |
1:35.766 |
21 |
| 2 |
1 |
Vettel |
Red Bull Racing-Renault |
1:45.086 |
1:36.410 |
1:37.386 |
19 |
| 3 |
22 |
Button |
McLaren-Mercedes |
1:44.425 |
1:36.579 |
1:38.200 |
24 |
| 4 |
27 |
Hulkenberg |
Force India-Mercedes |
1:41.271 |
1:37.112 |
1:38.329 |
19 |
| 5 |
20 |
Magnussen |
McLaren-Mercedes |
1:42.507 |
1:37.370 |
1:38.417 |
23 |
| 6 |
44 |
Hamilton |
Mercedes |
1:41.058 |
1:34.870 |
1:39.232 |
19 |
| 7 |
11 |
Perez |
Force India-Mercedes |
1:42.146 |
1:37.350 |
1:40.457 |
20 |
| 8 |
3 |
Ricciardo |
Red Bull Racing-Renault |
1:44.710 |
1:38.166 |
1:40.606 |
18 |
| 9 |
26 |
Kvyat |
STR-Renault |
1:41.032 |
1:36.813 |
1:40.707 |
21 |
| 10 |
25 |
Vergne |
STR-Renault |
1:43.040 |
1:37.800 |
1:40.855 |
21 |
| 11 |
8 |
Grosjean |
Lotus-Renault |
1:43.121 |
1:38.496 |
|
17 |
| 12 |
17 |
Bianchi |
Marussia-Ferrari |
1:41.169 |
1:38.709 |
|
17 |
| 13 |
4 |
Chilton |
Marussia-Ferrari |
1:42.082 |
1:39.800 |
|
14 |
| 14 |
21 |
Gutierrez |
Sauber-Ferrari |
1:43.285 |
1:40.912 |
|
16 |
| 15 |
13 |
Maldonado |
Lotus-Renault |
1:43.892 |
1:44.018 |
|
15 |
| 16 |
99 |
Sutil |
Sauber-Ferrari |
1:42.603 |
No time |
|
8 |
| 17 |
77 |
Bottas |
Williams-Mercedes |
1:45.318 |
|
|
5 |
| 18 |
19 |
Massa |
Williams-Mercedes |
1:45.695 |
|
|
5 |
| 19 |
14 |
Alonso |
Ferrari |
1:45.935 |
|
|
6 |
| 20 |
7 |
Räikkönen |
Ferrari |
1:46.684 |
|
|
7 |
| 21 |
9 |
Ericsson |
Caterham-Renault |
1:49.421 |
|
|
7 |
| 22 |
10 |
Kobayashi |
Caterham-Renault |
1:49.625 |
|
|
8 |
| |
|
Q1 107% Time |
|
1:47.406 |
|
|