Lewis Hamilton claims fifth Pole Position of the season at a dry/wet qualifying session

In Qualifying for the Austrian GP this afternoon, Lewis Hamilton set the pace ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg and Nico Hulkenberg in session which saw Daniil Kvyat suffering a suspected right rear suspension failure, crashing into the barriers at Turn 8; promoting the paddock to look into the problems with the “sausage yellow kerbs” before the race tomorrow.

As we understand at the moment, the “sausage yellow kerbs” have been made and introduced into the sport by the FIA to deter the drivers from pushing the track limits. But as Mercedes, Toro Rosso and Red Bull have suffered these failures over the course of the weekend; we may see changes being implemented before the race on Sunday for safety reasons.

During Q1, we saw Daniil Kvyat suffering a right rear suspension failure going into Turn 8 in the most spectacular fashion after spinning around and going into the pit lane barriers with the rear and front of the car taking the load. This then brought out the red flag as the marshals go to see if Kvyat is okay which he was and also to recover the Toro Rosso safely from the circuit.

As the session restarted with 1:44 seconds remaining, the weekend went from bad to worse for the Toro Rosso team as Carlos Sainz Jr's Ferrari engine blows up on the run down to Turn 2 and is out of qualifying despite finishing Q1 in eleventh place.

Personally one of the stars of qualifying as to be Pascal Wehrlein who qualified in ninth place in Q1 and giving Manor Racing their first Q2 start of the 2016 season and ended the session in as the rain hit in the Speilberg circuit towards the end of Q2 and spicing up the action heading into Q3.

And we got it! With the track drying and improving all the time, we saw Nico Hulkenberg, Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Jenson Button at one stage claiming provisional Pole Position.

But it was Lewis Hamilton who claimed his fifith Pole Position of the season with a lap time of 1:07.098 ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg in second place who was 0.543 seconds behind him (but has to take a five place grid penalty) and ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in third place who was 1.363 seconds behind Hamilton

Sebastian Vettel finished the session in fourth place (but also has to take a grid penalty) ahead of Jenson Button in fifth place, Kimi Raikkonen in sixth place, Daniel Ricciardo in seventh place, Valtteri Bottas in eighth place, Max Verstappen in ninth place and Felipe Massa who rounded off the top ten finishers.

Esteban Gutierrez qualified in eleventh place ahead of Pascal Wehrlein in a stunning twelfth place, Romain Grosjean in thirteenth place, Fernando Alonso in fourteenth place and Carlos Sainz Jr in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Sergio Perez ended the session in sixteenth place ahead of Kevin Magnussen in seventeenth place, Jolyon Palmer in eighteenth place, Rio Haryanto in nineteenth place, Daniil Kvyat in twentieth place, Marcus Ericsson in twenty-first place and Felipe Nasr in twenty-second place.

The classification of Qualifying for the Austrian GP is as follows:-

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 0.210s
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 0.543s*
3. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.363s
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1.859**
5. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.978s
6. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1.979s
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 2.058s
8. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 2.518s
9. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 3.231s
10. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 4.055s
11. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1.07.578
12. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 1.07.700
13. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1.07.850
14. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1.08.154
15. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, No Time
16. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, No Time
17. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1.07.941
18. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1.07.965
19. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, 1.08.026
20. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1.08.409
21. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.08.418
22. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.08.446
[*- Sebastian Vettel takes a five place grid penalty, **- Nico Rosberg takes a five place grid penalty].

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa