Silverstone Qualifying: Hamilton steals it from Ferrari

Ferrari were looking mighty since the morning FP3 session up until Q1, Vettel was faster and certainly took the fight to the Silver Arrows but with 'party mode' activated Hamilton dug deep (as he tends to do on home soil) and blasted around the iconic track in a lap record time of 1:25.892 just enough to edge Vettel by just 0.044 of a second.

It was classic Lewis and his emotions spoke volumes, "I gave it everything he could. It was so close between these Ferraris, the Ferraris just pulled something out when it got to Q3 and I was just praying I could do it for you guys. I'm so grateful for the support because without you guys I wouldn't have been able to do it."

Vettel said of his afternoon, "I had a bit of an issue [with my neck] in practice but it was fine in qualy. I was very happy with the last lap but we seem to lose a lot of time in the straights. I'm happy with second and it gives us a good chance for tomorrow."

Kimi Raikkonen was third, only a few hundredths of a second down on his teammate. It was very close between the top three.

Typically the veteran had little to say when he summed up,"I think I had all the tools today to be faster."

A measure of Hamilton's big lap time was the fact that teammate Valtteri Bottas was three tenths shy of his teammate in the other silver car, the Finn's effort good for fourth on the grid.

Renault took a backward step or their rivals got the jump on them as it was a dismal qualy performance by all their cars, starting with Red Bull.

In 'party mode' with everything maxed out on the day, the Red Bull's well off their top two rivals with Max Verstappen three-quarters of a second off the top time and teammate Daniel Ricciardo a further half a second adrift. No other Renault powered car made it beyond Q2 and two fell in Q3!

Haas proved that their recent form was no fluke as Kevin Magnussen ended best of the rest is seventh, a couple of tenths faster than teammate Romain Grosjean in eighth. Best of the Rest and a bucket of points beckons for the American team if their drivers keep it pointed the right way on race day.

Rookie Charles Lecelerc was again impressive as he completely overshadowed his more experienced teammate Marcus Ericsson all weekend - at least half a second per lap quicker - and in qualifying again made it into Q1 and ended the day ninth fastest. The youngster's shares continue to soar.

Brendon Hartley and Lance Stroll did not set times. Hartley's Toro Rosso which he crashed heavily in during FP3 earlier in the day could not be repaired in time while Stroll beached his Williams when he spun out on his first run in Q1.

Esteban Ocon squeezed into Q3 and was tenth in the Force India.

Notably, Ferrari had five cars in the top ten while Mercedes had three and Renault had a pair of TAG Heuer badged units powering the Red Bulls who had no answer for the two teams on the first two rows.

Q1 was red-flagged with just over three minutes on the clock when Stroll went off at Brooklands. With a recovery vehicle needed the session was halted for six minutes as his car was removed.

With Hartley not slated to take part in Qualifying following a heavy crash in final practice that left the team needing to build up a new chassis, Stroll’s exit meant that just three drivers would drop out of the session at the end of the 20 minutes.

When the session resumed Räikkönen jumped to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:27.549.

There was then a brief moment of further drama for Williams when Sirotkin went off track at Stowe, but the Russian was able to keep his car going and he limped back to the pits to recover.

Vettel then took over at the top with a time of 1:26.585, with Hamilton taking P2, just over two tenths behind and with Bottas third on a time of 1:27.025. Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull ahead of Räikkönen and the second Red Bull of Ricciardo.

The top six elected to sit out the final run and as the times came in the Red Bulls were split by the impressive Leclerc who took sixth place with a time of 1:27.962, 0.017s ahead of Ricciardo.

At the bottom of the order Sainz and Vandoorne were the men in trouble as the final runs started. Sainz briefly jumped up the order but as the final times arrived he was shuffled back to P16 and eliminated. The Spaniard cited traffic, in particular Magnussen, as the reason for his uncharacteristic slump.

Vandoorne also failed to find more pace and he exited the session ahead of Sirotkin, who managed to set a time, but one that was only good enough for P18.

At the start of Q2, Vettel set the immediate pace with a time of 1:26.372. Hamilton, meanwhile was forced to back out of his first lap after making a mistake at Turn 4, but a second attempt handed him top spot with a time of 1:26.256.

Behind Vettel, Bottas was third for Mercedes ahead of the seconds Ferrari of Räikkönen and the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Ricciardo. Grosjean was best of the rest after the first runs, two tenths shy of Ricciardo’s time, with Magnussen eighth ahead of Leclerc and Ocon.

Four of the top six elected to sit on their first-run times in the closing phase of the segment, but Hamilton and Bottas both took to the track. The Briton abandoned his run while Bottas completed a lap without improvement.

The top 10 remained unchanged in the final runs, and behind Ocon, Hulkenberg was eliminated in P11, along with P12 man Perez, Alonso, Gasly and the second Sauber of Ericsson in P15.

At the start of Q3, Hamilton laid an early claim to pole position with a time of 1:25.993, but he was dislodged from top spot by Vettel who went clear by 0.057s.

Bottas slotted into P3 ahead of Räikkönen, Verstappen and Ricciardo. The Australian reported that he had lost DRS and he sat over four tenths adrift of his team-mate.

Hamilton, though, found the reserve he’d been seeking in the final run and he jumped to P1 with a time of 1:25.892, four tenths clear of his title rivals.

Vettel was unable to improve and he hung onto second place, He might have been dislodged by Räikkönen, who set the quickest time of all in S1, but a mistake in Turn 16 cost him dearly and he finished third, just five hundredths of a second behind his team-mate.

Bottas qualified fourth ahead of the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Ricciardo, while Magnussen edged team-mate Grosjean by two tenths of a second to claim the front of row four. Leclerc finished an excellent ninth ahead of Ocon.