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Lewis Hamilton achieved his fourth successive pole position in a dramatic qualifying session at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

A rain shower at the beginning of Q3 gave the perfect opportunity for Paul di Resta, which resulted in provisional pole for Force India.

But as the circuit dried up, the Mercedes and Red Bulls blasted through to demote him down to fifth place.

Di Resta was the only driver to start Q3 on intermediates, and while the other nine slip and slide helplessly, before pitting again to abandon their slicks, the Force India flew to the top of the time sheets.

It seemed that no one would have a chance, although Nico Rosberg hinted at a challenge when he got within half a second of the Force India in much worse weather.

While di Resta pitted with pole apparently in the pocket, the rain eased completely, and those able to squeeze in a lap in the final moments of Q3 were back in pole contention.

It was Rosberg who first deposed the Force India, but he was quickly beaten by Mark Webber, then Hamilton.

Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel came through 0.2 seconds slower than Hamilton to claim P2, followed by his Red Bull team-mate Webber, Rosberg and di Resta.

As for Jenson Button, last year’s race winner put in an encouraging sixth for McLaren.

Lotus and Ferrari had to settle for rows four and five, with title contenders Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso back in eighth and ninth positions.

The biggest upset of the wet-but-drying first part of qualifying was Marussia duo Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton plus Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde all making it through to Q2.

The trio were the only drivers to try slicks at the end of Q1 and all jumped up the order, all the way to third in Van der Garde’s case!

As they progressed, the Williams, Toro Rosso and Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez were knocked out due a more conservative tactics as they failed to reach Q2.

With Q2 dry, Van der Garde, Bianchi and Chilton lined up in P14 to P16 respectively.

That still means Caterham will share row seven with a McLaren, as Sergio Perez was the highest-profile driver to fall in Q2.

He starts behind the all-German row six pairing of Nico Hulkenberg and Adrian Sutil.

So an exciting qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps, with Hamilton scoring his 31st career pole position in Formula 1. Can the Mercedes driver win? It’s going to be a fascinating race.

Qualifying positions, Spa-Francorchamps:

1.  Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes               2m01.012s
2.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault       2m01.200s
3.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault       2m01.325s
4.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes               2m02.251s
5.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes   2m02.332s
6.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes       2m03.075s
7.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault          2m03.081s
8.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault          2m03.390s
9.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari                2m03.482s
10.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari                2m04.059s
11.  Nico Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari         1m49.088s
12.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes     1m49.103s
13.  Sergio Perez        McLaren-Mercedes         1m49.304s
14.  Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault         1m52.036s
15.  Jules Bianchi       Marussia-Cosworth        1m52.563s
16.  Max Chilton         Marussia-Cosworth        1m52.762s
17.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault       2m03.072s
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne       Toro Rosso-Ferrari       2m03.300s
19.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari        2m03.317s
20.  Valtteri Bottas        Williams-Renault         2m03.432s
21.  Esteban Gutierrez   Sauber-Ferrari         2m04.324s
22.  Charles Pic         Caterham-Renault    2m07.384s

107 per cent time: 2m08.603s

Lewis Hamilton scored his first victory for Mercedes thanks to an impressive drive at the Hungaroring.

The 2008 world champion pulled himself clear of a fraught race behind. Kimi Raikkonen fended off the championship leader Sebastian Vettel to the runner-up spot.

Mark Webber salvaged fourth for Red Bull while Romain Grosjean’s chances for race victory was spoiled by a drive-through penalty.

Hamilton’s initial battle was with qualifying rivals Vettel and Grosjean, after a thrilling opening lap in which slow-starter Vettel had to defend from the Lotus as Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg also tried to get involved.

The Red Bull was right on the gearbox of the leading Mercedes initially, but as the opening stint wore on, Hamilton was able to pull away, while Vettel came under pressure from Grosjean.

The crucial moment for Hamilton was when he emerged behind Jenson Button after his first pitstop.

Hamilton made the important pass, not so for Vettel. The defending champion couldn’t find a way by after making a pitstop too.

The McLaren and Red Bull made light contact, leaving Vettel concerned about his front wing and allowing Grosjean plenty of opportunity to attack, as Alonso closed in too.

It took until lap 24 for Vettel to finally pass Button, with Grosjean clashing with the McLaren as he tried to follow.

Both were able to continue, but the incident will be investigated post-race.

Grosjean still got a penalty though… Following his second pitstop, he boldly passed Felipe Massa’s Ferrari around the outside of the fast Turn 4.

But the race stewards adjudged that he had exceeded track limits in doing so and was given a drive-through penalty, dropping Grosjean out of contention.

By the time Vettel was clear of Button, Hamilton had a commanding advantage over the triple world champion that he would not lose.

The other Red Bull driver was not defeated yet, though. Webber ran a very long first stint on his medium tyres and spent a while in the lead.

On their slightly different sequences, Hamilton twice emerged right behind Webber after pitstops, and twice passed him on the outside of Turn 3, with Webber ending up taking to the run-off in the second move.

Those passes ensured Webber had no chance of delaying Hamilton’s progress as the Briton achieved Mercedes GP’s third victory of the 2013 season.

Meanwhile Raikkonen worked his way forward on a two-stop strategy, spending the early part of the Hungarian Grand Prix trapped behind Massa before bringing himself into contention.

His consistent pace meant that he emerged in second place as the final stops played out, with both Red Bulls behind him.

Vettel tried his utmost to pass Raikkonen in the closing laps and complained that the Finn was over-defensive in what turned out to be a decisive battle with two laps to the flag.

Webber tried to chase down the pair but had to settle for fourth, while Alonso fell away from the leaders and could only fend off Grosjean for fifth.

McLaren got both its cars in the points on two-stop strategies, with Button seventh and Sergio Perez ninth.

First-lap contact with Rosberg and a later brush with Adrian Sutil hampered Massa’s day and he finished eighth.

Rosberg tumbled down to P12 in his incident with the Ferrari. He recovered to ninth before a fiery late-race failure.

His retirement allowed Pastor Maldonado to end the Williams team’s points drought in tenth position.

So a fantastic result for Lewis Hamilton. His fourth victory at the Hungaroring and yet his first for the Mercedes. He becomes the first British driver to win for the Silver Arrows since Sir Stirling Moss back in 1955.

Formula 1 now heads into the summer break and it will be fascinating if the other teams can keep up this close competition as the racing resume at Spa-Francorchamps next month.

Race results from the Hungaroring after 70 laps:

1.  Hamilton       Mercedes    1:42:29.445
2.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault +10.938
3.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault +12.459
4.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault +18.044
5.  Alonso         Ferrari +31.411
6.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault +32.295
7.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes +53.819
8.  Massa          Ferrari +56.447
9.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
10.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault +1 lap
11.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap
12.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
13.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
14.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault +1 lap
15.  Pic            Caterham-Renault +1 lap
16.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth +1 lap
17.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth +1 lap

Retirement/non-finishes:

Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes +66 laps
Rosberg        Mercedes +64 laps
Bottas         Williams-Renault +42 laps
Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari +28 laps
Sutil          Force India-Mercedes +19 laps

World Championship standings, round 10:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel        172
2.  Raikkonen     136
3.  Alonso        133
4.  Hamilton      122
5.  Webber        105
6.  Rosberg        84
7.  Massa          61
8.  Grosjean       49
9.  Button         39
10.  Di Resta       36
11.  Sutil          23
12.  Perez          18
13.  Vergne         13
14.  Ricciardo      11
15.  Hulkenberg      7
16.  Maldonado       1

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          277
2.  Mercedes                  206
3.  Ferrari                   194
4.  Lotus-Renault             185
5.  Force India-Mercedes       59
6.  McLaren-Mercedes           57
7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         24
8.  Sauber-Ferrari              7
9.  Williams-Renault            1

Next race: Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps. August 23-25.

Lewis Hamilton achieved his third successive pole position in Formula 1 in a superb duel with championship leader Sebastian Vettel at the Hungaroring.

The Mercedes driver denied the triple world champion in the final moments of qualifying. His margin was less than four-hundredths of a second.

Vettel seemed to have put himself out of reach with an incredible first flying lap in Q3 that was eight-tenths of a second clear.

It was an impressive lap and Red Bull even had a fresh set of tyres for both Q3 runs. Their rivals were all saving their rubber for their final lap.

Initially, Vettel remained too fast to catch, with final practice pace setter Romain Grosjean getting closest in his Lotus.

But Hamilton was able to mount an attack with a time of one minute, 19.377 seconds to displace Vettel. The Red Bull driver improved his pace but fell short by just 0.038 seconds.

Still, this was far better than his team-mate Mark Webber. After setting the second quickest time in both Friday practice sessions, the Australian suffered a KERS failure in qualifying.

Webber struggled through to Q3 but did not run in the top ten shootout, so will start in tenth position.

Grosjean held on to third place, joined on second row by Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Ferrari was not a contender for the pole, with Fernando Alonso fifth and Felipe Massa seventh.

Kimi Raikkonen was briefly on the provisional front row as he completed an early final run, but in the end, the Lotus driver will start the Hungarian Grand Prix in sixth place.

Raikkonen’s rival for next year’s Red Bull seat is Daniel Ricciardo and the young Australian maintained his strong recent form to put his Toro Rosso eighth, six positions ahead of team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne.

Sergio Perez was the other Q3 contender in ninth, sticking to his set of medium tyres rather than going for pole. His McLaren team-mate Jenson Button understeered to a disappointing P13.

Given his engine problems during the final practice session, Esteban Gutierrez’s Q1 departure was little surprise.

And yet Paul di Resta’s early exit in qualifying was a shock. The Scot and Force India were left baffled by the performance of the tyres.

Team-mate Adrian Sutil missed out on the top ten by just 0.042 seconds and joins Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber on row six.

Caterham proved comfortably quicker than Marussia in the fight at the back, while brief late-Q2 top-ten appearances from both Williams drivers proved deceptive as they were shuffled back to P16 and P17.

So a fantastic qualifying effort by Lewis Hamilton but will the tyres play a part in the overall race pace of the Mercedes come the Grand Prix? Overtaking is difficult around the Hungaroring as it’s tight and twisty but if Hamilton can keep his rivals at bay, we could see him score that dream win for Silver Arrows.

Qualifying times from the Hungaroring:

1.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes              1m19.388s
2.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault      1m19.426s
3.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault         1m19.595s
4.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes              1m19.720s
5.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari               1m19.791s
6.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault         1m19.851s
7.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari               1m19.929s
8.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m20.641s
9.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes      1m22.398s
10.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault     no time set
11.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  1m20.569s
12.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari        1m20.580s
13.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes      1m20.777s
14.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m21.029s
15.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault      1m21.133s
16.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault      1m21.219s
17.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari        1m21.724s
18.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes  1m22.043s
19.  Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault      1m23.007s
20.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault      1m23.333s
21.  Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth     1m23.787s
22.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth     1m23.997s

107 per cent time: 1m25.974s

Sebastian Vettel scored his 30th career victory in Formula 1 with a brilliant drive in the German Grand Prix.

The triple world champion resisted the pressure from the Lotus pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean to finally win in the month of July and at the Nürburgring.

As the Lotus drivers took turns to hound Vettel for most of the race, it looked unlikely that the championship leader would be able to cling on for victory, but Vettel ultimately managed to after a determined drive.

Polesitter Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes was swamped by the faster-starting Red Bulls off the line, as Vettel and Mark Webber moved into an immediate one-two.

Webber stayed right with his team-mate until the first pit-stops, when he was sent out before his right-rear tyre was fully attached.

The tyre shot off and hit a television cameraman further down the pitlane. The cameraman was taken to hospital for observation.

Hamilton lost ground with tyre graining as the race progressed, but Lotus moved in the opposite direction with lightning pace.

Grosjean ran 13 laps on softs in his first stint – far better than anyone else managed – and that jumped him from fifth to second.

Romain then chased Sebastian down, though he could not get closer than two seconds behind.

A safety car just mid-distance closed the field up and brought Raikkonen from 12 seconds down into contention.

The caution period was required after Jules Bianchi’s Marussia retired in a cloud of smoke and flames, and then began rolling backwards across the circuit after its driver had got out.

The leaders made their second pit-stops behind the safety car but could not make it from there to the end.

Grosjean was first to pit, with Vettel pitting on the next lap and staying ahead.

Raikkonen ran ten laps further then pitted for softs, allowing him to charge back past Grosjean, who obeyed a team order to not delay The Iceman, and then catch Vettel.

But the triple world champion had just enough in hand to hang on and win by a second.

Grosjean resisted a similar late surge from Fernando Alonso to keep third.

After not setting a lap time in Q3, this was a superb performance by Alonso. A complete contrast to his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa, who spun out at the first corner just four laps in while running sixth.

Hamilton ended up fifth, passing two-stopper Jenson Button’s McLaren on the final lap.

Webber was brought back to the Red Bull garage and given a new wheel, then recovered from a distant last to seventh, just ahead of McLaren’s Sergio Perez.

Nico Rosberg could make little progress from P11 on the grid and finished ninth ahead of fellow countryman Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber.

Daniel Ricciardo faded from sixth in qualifying to P12, between the Force Indias of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil.

Williams appeared to have a shot at points for a while, before pit-stop delays hampered both its drivers.

So a fantastic race by Sebastian Vettel. Resisted the heavy pressure despite a KERS issue in the Red Bull. Makes up for that disappointing result in Silverstone a week ago.

German Grand Prix race results, after 60 laps:

1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault 1:41:14.711
2.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault +1.008
3.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault +5.830
4.  Alonso         Ferrari +7.721
5.  Hamilton       Mercedes +26.927
6.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes +27.996
7.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault +37.562
8.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes +38.306
9.  Rosberg        Mercedes +46.821
10.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari +49.892
11.  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes +53.771
12.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari +56.975
13.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes +57.738
14.  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari +1:00.160
15.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault +1:01.929
16.  Bottas         Williams-Renault +1 lap
17.  Pic            Caterham-Renault +1 lap
18.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault +1 lap
19.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth +1 lap

Not classified/retirements:

Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari 22 laps
Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth 21 laps
Massa          Ferrari 3 laps

World Championship standings, round 9:                

Drivers:             
1.  Vettel        157
2.  Alonso        123
3.  Raikkonen     118
4.  Hamilton       97
5.  Webber         93
6.  Rosberg        84
7.  Massa          57
8.  Grosjean       41
9.  Di Resta       36
10.  Button         33
11.  Sutil          23
12.  Perez          16
13.  Vergne         13
14.  Ricciardo      11
15.  Hulkenberg      7

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          250
2.  Mercedes                  181
3.  Ferrari                   180
4.  Lotus-Renault             159
5.  Force India-Mercedes       59
6.  McLaren-Mercedes           49
7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         24
8.  Sauber-Ferrari              7

Next race: Hungarian Grand Prix, Hungaroring. July 26-28.

Lewis Hamilton achieved his 29th career pole position in Formula 1 by beating championship leader Sebastian Vettel in an exciting qualifying battle at the Nürburgring.

As for his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, who had been the main Silver Arrows driver to start from pole position, the British Grand Prix winner did not even make into Q3 following a strategically error by the team.

In a close contest at the end of the top ten shootout, Hamilton produced a lap time of one minute, 29.398 seconds to beat Vettel’s Red Bull to pole by 0.103 seconds.

Hamilton had held the provisional top spot with a time of one minute, 29.540 seconds after the first qualifying and yet the triple champion was able to lap 0.039 seconds quicker before the 2008 world champion responded with an ever-fastest lap.

It was a shocked to see Nico Rosberg knocked out in Q2 to what appears to be a simple miscalculation by Mercedes. The team believed his early run was sufficient enough for second when it was set.

And yet in the final moments of Q2, his rivals were able to record quicker lap times. Jenson Button, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg were the players that squeezed into the top ten, while Rosberg was pushed out.

The Monaco and British Grands Prix winner will start his ‘home’ race in eleventh position.

Mark Webber qualified his Red Bull in third, ahead of the Lotus pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.

As for Daniel Ricciardo, the Toro Rosso driver continued his impressive qualifying form with sixth. Team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne was only P16.

Ferrari opted out of the pole fight with Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso running the medium set of tyres in Q3 rather than the quicker softs. The Scuderia will line up on row four.

Both Button and Hulkenberg elated the same tactic by not setting a lap time in Q3. The McLaren driver will start in ninth ahead of his Sauber rival.

Neither Force India reached Q2, with Paul di Resta in P12 and Adrian Sutil a very disappointing P15 at his home race.

Sergio Perez looked in danger of getting knocked out in Q1 at one point, so his eventual P13 was not as bad as it might have been. The Mexican will share row seven with compatriot Esteban Gutierrez.

As for Williams, to have both drivers lining up on row nine is not the ideal result to celebrate their 600th Grand Prix. Williams joined Caterham and Marussia in the bottom six qualifiers.

So a great result for Lewis Hamilton but without that mistake from Mercedes, Nico Rosberg should have been on the front row alongside his team-mate. It’s going to be a fascinating race to see if the Silverstone winner can come through the field to win in front of the German fans.

Qualifying times from the Nürbrugring:

1.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes             1m29.398s
2.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault     1m29.501s
3.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault     1m29.608s
4.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault        1m29.892s
5.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault        1m29.959s
6.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m30.528s
7.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari              1m31.126s
8.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari              1m31.209s
9.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes     No time set
10.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari       No time set
11.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes              1m30.326s
12.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes  1m30.697s
13.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes      1m30.933s
14.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari        1m31.010s
15.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  1m31.010s
16.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m31.104s
17.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault      1m31.693s
18.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault      1m31.707s
19.  Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault      1m32.937s
20.  Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth     1m33.063s
21.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault      1m33.734s
22.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth     1m34.098s

107 per cent time: 1m36.885s

Nico Rosberg scored his third career Grand Prix victory in Formula 1, resisting the challenge from Mark Webber, to take the chequered flag at Silverstone.

The Mercedes driver benefitted from a non-finish from championship leader Sebastian Vettel in a race full of left-rear tyre blowouts.

Rosberg’s Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton was leading until he became the first man to suffer a tyre blow, with Vettel then controlling the British Grand Prix until his Red Bull lost drive in the closing stages.

That set up a thrilling finale as Vettel’s team-mate Webber, who had fallen to P15 on the opening lap, hunted down Rosberg, while Fernando Alonso and the recovering Hamilton charged past Kimi Raikkonen into third and fourth place.

Hamilton had established a two-second lead over Vettel, who jumped Rosberg off the line, by lap seven, when his left-rear tyre blew.

That was followed soon after by an identical failure for Felipe Massa. The Ferrari driver had thrust from P11 on the grid to fifth at the start and was pushing Adrian Sutil for third when his tyre gave well too.

When Jean-Eric Vergne’s left-rear tyre also exploded, the safety car came out for seven laps, with engineers urging their drivers to avoid the kerbs.

Vettel kept Rosberg behind him as the race restarted. Sutil ran third until leaving his second pit stop too late and being jumped by Raikkonen, Alonso and Webber.

The Australian was on a charge from 15th after a slow start and a first-corner brush with Romain Grosjean, and overtook Alonso going into the closing stages.

Just as the result seemed settled, Vettel ground to a halt with a loss of drive.

With the stranded Red Bull prompting a safety car, Rosberg dived in for a third tyre stop and rejoined still ahead of Raikkonen.

Webber and Alonso also went for tyres and dropped to fifth and eighth, elevating Sutil and Daniel Ricciardo to third and fourth.

Webber made great use of his fresh tyres to quickly pick off Ricciardo and Sutil, and then battle past Raikkonen.

By the final lap the Red Bull was within a second of Rosberg, who held on to win by seven tenths of a second.

Alonso also made rapid progress on his new set of Pirelli, dodging the McLaren of Sergio Perez as it became yet another tyre-blow victim, then fighting through to third.

The recovering Hamilton followed through, demoting Raikkonen – who had questioned the Lotus team’s decision not to pit under the late safety car – to fifth.

Massa climbed back to sixth after his puncture, with Sutil and Ricciardo pushed back to seventh and eighth ahead of Paul di Resta, who started from the back of the grid after his car was found underweight, and Nico Hulkenberg.

Jenson Button had been on course for points for McLaren until the final laps, when he was demoted down to P13.

So an eventful British Grand Prix, with the sudden tyre failures becoming the main talking point at Silverstone. In terms of the championship, the non-finish for Sebastian Vettel has made it exciting with Fernando Alonso now 21 points behind.

British Grand Prix race results, 52 laps:

1.  Rosberg        Mercedes                   1h32:59.456
2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault           +0.765
3.  Alonso         Ferrari                    +7.124
4.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault              +7.756
5.  Hamilton       Mercedes                   +11.257
6.  Massa          Ferrari                    +14.573
7.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes       +16.335
8.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +16.543
9.  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes       +17.943
10.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari             +19.709
11.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault           +21.135
12.  Bottas         Williams-Renault           +25.094
13.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes           +25.900
14.  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari             +26.200
15.  Pic            Caterham-Renault           +31.600
16.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth          +36.000
17.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth          +1:07.600
18.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault           +1:07.700
19.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault              +1 lap

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:33.401

Not classified/retirements:

Perez          McLaren-Mercedes             47 laps
Vettel         Red Bull-Renault             42 laps
Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari           36 laps

World Championship standings, round 8:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel        132
2.  Alonso        111
3.  Raikkonen     100
4.  Hamilton       87
5.  Webber         87
6.  Rosberg        82
7.  Massa          57
8.  Di Resta       36
9.  Grosjean       26
10.  Button         25
11.  Sutil          23
12.  Vergne         13
13.  Perez          12
14.  Ricciardo      11
15.  Hulkenberg      6

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          219
2.  Mercedes                  169
3.  Ferrari                   168
4.  Lotus-Renault             126
5.  Force India-Mercedes       59
6.  McLaren-Mercedes           37
7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         24
8.  Sauber-Ferrari              6

Next race: German Grand Prix, Nurburgring. July 5-7.

Lewis Hamilton achieved his 28th career pole position at his home race with a margin over his Mercedes team-mate of four tenths of a second.

The 2008 world champion overcame the challenge from Nico Rosberg to take the top spot at Silverstone, as the Silver Arrows once again made qualifying their own.

The first flying lap of one minute, 30.096 seconds set early in Q3 gave Hamilton the initial advantage by a tenth and a half.

Rosberg managed to beat that with a one minute, 30.059 seconds on his second run, but Hamilton was already responding with an ever quicker lap.

Hamilton came through in the final moments of Q3 with one minute, 29.607 seconds lap, taking pole position in front of his home crowd. This was his first at Silverstone since 2007.

Red Bull Racing was the only rival to Mercedes, but Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber had to be content with the second row. The pair were just only 0.009 seconds apart.

Paul di Resta also impressed with fifth for Force India. Two British drivers in the top six will give the home supporters to cheer.

His team-mate Adrian Sutil was up in seventh, behind the sensational Daniel Ricciardo, while second Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne was way back in P13.

Ferrari struggled badly with a lack of pace at Silverstone. Fernando Alonso was only tenth fastest, beaten by the Lotus pair as well as the others. Felipe Massa also failed to get of Q2 and will start in P12.

Despite predicting on Friday that Q3 would be impossible for McLaren, a mighty late-Q2 lap from Jenson Button almost got him into the top ten.

Unfortunately for the Woking-based team, Raikkonen squeezed ahead by 0.057 seconds, leaving Button P11. His team-mate Sergio Perez was fourth tenths and three positions further back.

One race on from his incredible Montreal qualifying result, it was back to reality for Valtteri Bottas. He was eliminated in Q1 and will start one place behind Williams team-mate Pastor Maldonado in P17.

Sauber’s year continued in the same disappointing form too, with Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutierrez P15 and P18.

Max Chilton was troubled to end up slowest in his first Formula 1 qualifying session at home, especially with Marussia team-mate Jules Bianchi 1.7 seconds faster.

But Chilton will not start last as Giedo van der Garde will drop back due to his penalty for tangling with Mark Webber in Montreal.

So a Silver Arrows front row at Silverstone with the crowd favourite on pole position. Can Lewis Hamilton achieve his first win of the year, in front of the passionate crowd? That would be a dream result for the 2008 world champion if he can repeat his impressive pace in the race.

Qualifying positions for the British Grand Prix:

1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes             1m29.607s
2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m30.059s
3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m30.211s
4. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m30.220s
5. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m30.736s
6. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m30.757s
7. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m30.908s
8. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m30.955s
9. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m30.962s
10. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m30.979s
11. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m31.649s
12. Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m31.779s
13. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m31.785s
14. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes     1m32.082s
15. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.211s
16. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m32.359s
17. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault     1m32.664s
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.666s
19. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault     1m33.866s
20. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth    1m34.108s
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault     1m35.481s
22. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth    1m35.858s

107 per cent time: 1m37.364s