Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the British GP at Silverstone in a thrilling Q3 shootout to be beat Sebastian Vettel by just 0.044s.
Hamilton sat second following the first Q3 runs, just 0.057s behind his German rival.
The reigning F1 world champion then put in a stunning middle sector on his final Q3 lap to post a 1m 25.892s – setting a new lap record in the process – to squeak ahead of Vettel and secure pole, the Ferrari pilot failing to improve on his final tour.
It’s an all Finnish-affair on the second row, as Kimi Raikkonen lapped just over half-a-tenth slower than his team-mate to secure third on the grid after posting a blistering first sector on his final lap.
Valtteri Bottas will start from fourth on the grid after making small errors on both of his Q3 efforts, leaving him just over three-tenths adrift of his pole-sitting team-mate.
Max Verstappen led Daniel Ricciardo in fifth and sixth places for Red Bull, the Austrian GP victor beating out his Australian stable mate by over half a second, likely due to a DRS problem on Ricciardo’s RB14.
Haas meanwhile continued their recent purple-patch of form as the team locks-out the fourth row, Kevin Magnussen beating Romain Grosjean to seventh, while Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon rounded out the top ten.
In Q2, drivers from five different teams failing to progress into the pole position shootout.
Nico Hulkenberg in 11th made sure that neither Renault would reach Q3 for the first time this season, while Sergio Perez failed to join team-mate Ocon in the final qualifying session.
Fernando Alonso continued McLaren’s recent subdued form in 13th, while Pierre Gasly and Marcus Ericsson had to make do with 14th and 15th for Toro Rosso and Sauber respectively.
Carlos Sainz was a shock Q1 casualty after the Renault driver encountered traffic on his final qualifying lap, meaning he qualifies 16th just ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne’s McLaren.
Williams had another difficult qualifying session after showing early Friday promise, as both cars failed to progress from Q1 once again.
Sergey Sirotkin was lucky to survive a high-speed spin through Stowe, and as a result was only able to post one fast lap in the closing seconds of Q1. Last of the remaining runners in 18th was the best the Russian could manage.
Lance Stroll meanwhile made an early qualifying exit after losing control of his Williams – also on entry to Brooklands – and spinning into the gravel trap, forcing a brief red flag period as a result so that marshals could retrieve the FW41.
Brendon Hartley failed to take part in qualifying following his dramatic crash in FP3, caused by a suspension failure on his Toro Rosso that spat the Kiwi into the barriers at Brooklands.
