Silverstone Qualifying: Hamilton on pole as Mercedes dominate

After playing second fiddle to his Mercedes teammate on Friday, Lewis Hamilton delivered a day later in fine style in front of his home crowd to claim pole position for the British Grand Prix- his eighth top spot start of the season.

Hamilton's set his best lap of 1:32.248 on his first run in Q3, and that was enough to do the business, despite it appearing a tad scrappy.

Pole position was Hamilton's third at the British Grand Prix, and takes him to third outright on the list of all time Formula 1 pole-position winners. He now has 46 pole starts, moving him one ahead of Sebastian Vettel, and behind only Ayrton Senna (65) and Michael Schumacher (68).

Hamilton said, "It's a special day. When you see all those fans out there, so many people they really do motivate me. It is special when you do get the pole. Generally it has not been the smoothest of weekends."

"I made a change in the car before qualifying which hopefully will be good for the race. Once I got to Q3 I could go all out, and I am incredibly happy. Big thank you to everyone for the support. It's the banners, the flags, the team caps, the messages that get sent every day."

"I was replying to some just before qualifying they just create the atmosphere that buzz. You know those guys are there right behind you and I hope the energy they give can help us [in the race]," added the world champion.

Rosberg had to settle for second, while Williams with Felipe Massa third and Valtteri Bottas fourth, made it a lock out of the top two rows on the grid for Mercedes powered cars.

In the end Rosberg could simply not match the top time, falling short by a tenth of a second, and reported on his slowdown lap: "No grip on the left front. Very strange."

The German added afterwards, "Well first of all the first lap was really good, Lewis was just one tenth quicker which is annoying but way it is. It is awesome to see how many people and here. It's great to see how enthusiastic everyone is about our sport."

"No one improved in that last run apart from Felipe. There was something wrong on my left front, we need to look at what it was," added Rosberg.

Of the top six only Massa was able to go quicker on his final run in Q3, and did enough to steal P3 by 0.064 of a second from his teammate Bottas, and with it out-qualify the in demand Finn for the sixth time this season.

Massa was happy, "It was a fantastic day for us. It is amazing to see how many people here, it is the home grand prix for the team and it is great to see. Me and Valtteri were third and fourth fighting each other, especially in Q3, and I just managed to get a fantastic lap in the end."

"I'm so happy, really looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully we can have a strong race and fight with the Ferrari. It is important to see we are in front with both cars we just need to concentrate on [the race] now," concluded the Brazilian.

Ferrari look to have taken a step back in the pecking order, at least for now, with Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel in fifth and sixth respectively. The under-pressure Finn having the upper-hand, with Vettel not quite finding the sweet spot so far this weekend.

Daniil Kvyat continues to show strong form for Red Bull as he set the seventh fastest time, to end up fastest of the Renault powered brigade. Notably teammate Daniel Ricciardo was tenth, his best over quarter of a second down on the Russian.

While the hype and attention swirls around his Toro Rosso teammate Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz quietly got on with his own business and posted the eighth fastest time, while the teenage Dutchman failed to make it beyond Q2, complaining that "I dont know what's going on, it's just so bad compared to the practice. I don't feel one corner the same. Just no grip."

Le Mans winner Nico Hulkenberg was ninth fastest for Force India, with teammate Sergio Perez set to start from 11th.

It was another sad day for McLaren, this time on the occasion of their home race, in Britain, which they have won on no fewer than 14 occasions (only Ferrari have won one more) with neither of their world champion drivers progressing beyond Q1. Fernando Alonso was 17th and Jenson Button 18th.

At the sharp end, Mercedes became only the second team in Formula 1 history to take 20 consecutive poles. Williams are the only other team to achieve the feat, in 1992-1993.

Final word to Silver Arrows team boss Toto Wolff: "It's great Lewis is on pole, he deserved it. The wind is pretty strong and gusty that was a bit of a messy situation for everybody. Until this morning it was Nico who was more at ease but, as you can see in all the other races, Lewis responds when it matters."

Come race day row one will be all Mercedes, row two all Williams, row three all Ferrari and row four all Red Bull, albeit one of the energy drinks backed cars will be of junior variety...

[highlight ]2015 British Grand Prix, Qualifying - Saturday, 4 July 2015[/highlight]