Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position at the Austrian Grand Prix Saturday despite spinning off on the first corner of his final qualifying lap at a rain-affected Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.
Fortunately for the Briton, championship rival and Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg followed up by skidding off on the last corner of his final run.
“It was quite a difficult qualifying with the track conditions,” Hamilton later told reporters in quotes carried by the AFP news agency.
The 30-year-old clocked the fastest time of the day at 1minute 8.455 seconds on the penultimate qualifying lap, just 0.2 seconds faster than anything Rosberg, who had been fastest in Q1 and Q2, could manage.
“I was grateful I got my third lap in on the first run in Q3,” Hamilton continued. “I was pushing that bit extra on the next run (Q4) and just locked the rears.”
“I wasn’t too concerned about losing pole at that time because I was trying to get the car going, but obviously afterwards I was thinking: ‘I probably lost it there.’
The result guarantees Hamilton a 45th career pole and ensures Mercedes, which has dominated F1 in recent years, is at the top of the grid the 19th straight race.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel ended the day third fastest behind Vettel while Felipe Massa was fourth for Williams. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg placed fifth ahead of Valterri Bottas, in the second Williams, who finished sixth.
Teenager Max Verstappen, meanwhile, qualified seventh for Toro Rosso in front of Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull.
Further back on the grid, the problems continued for McLaren Honda drivers Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.
Both are former world champions but have been hamstrung by myriad car problems this week.
Button, who finished 17th Saturday, required a complete new power unit with gearbox while Alonso, who clocked the 14th fastest time, was forced to add a new gearbox to his earlier new engine.
The pair have been afforded 25-place grid penalties for Sunday’s race as a result of exceeding the number of permitted alterations meaning they will start from the back and have to take timed penalties.
Such concerns will be of little notice to the likes of Hamilton and Rosberg, who are once again duking out for the drivers title further up the grid.
But Hamilton did have a word of warning to anyone who thinks he or his Mercedes teammate only have to show up to win Sunday.
“Ferrari have really showed some great pace here so it is going to be a tough race,” he said. “Every little bit of time will count tomorrow.”
