Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m35.766s
2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m37.386s +1.620s
3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.200s +2.434s
4. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m38.329s +2.563s
5. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.417s +2.651s
6. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m39.232s +3.466s
7. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m40.457s +4.691s
8. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m40.606s +4.840s
9. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1m40.707s +4.941s
10. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 1m40.855s +5.089s
Q2
11. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m38.496s +3.626s
12. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1m38.709s +3.839s
13. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1m39.800s +4.930s
14. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m40.912s +6.042s
15. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1m44.018s +9.148s
16. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari no time
Q1
17. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m45.318s +4.938s
18. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m45.695s +5.315s
19. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m45.935s +5.555s
20. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m46.684s +6.304s
21. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1m49.421s +9.041s
22. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1m49.625s +9.245s
Nico Rosberg
Wow, what a qualifying. It was so tricky out there this afternoon with the rain and the conditions changing so quickly. It´s very satisfying to get everything right in these conditions and be able to come out on top. Thanks to the team today for guiding me through the hour so well. My last flying lap was difficult because we were very tight for time and I was stuck right up behind Lewis. Luckily he didn´t finish his lap but I remembered that we were losing three or four seconds in the last corners when it was very wet so there was an opportunity to make a real improvement and that I should keep going. It´s a great opportunity to start the race from pole and I´ll give it everything to take the win tomorrow.
Lewis Hamilton
I made a mistake today and pulled out of the lap when I should have kept going. It was a tough qualifying with the changing conditions and we got through most of it really well, until the most important part. It was my decision, a bad call, and that decided my qualifying. I´m so sorry to have disappointed the fans here today as their support has been fantastic and I´ll do what I can to have a great race for them tomorrow. I need to have a start like I had in Austria two weeks ago and then do my best to get back to the front; you never know what might happen. It´s difficult when you´re just out of the car to express your emotions and see the positive but I´ll go back to the team and my family now and we´ll build up for tomorrow from there.
Toto Wolff
It´s a case of mixed feelings this afternoon after qualifying. I´m delighted for Nico that he got pole right at the end: he had nothing to lose, because he was P2 after his first run, and got the job done in the final sector of the lap where he was able to make up over four seconds compared to his previous lap. On the other hand, I´m really disappointed for Lewis - he had done a great job to lead the times, then just thought it was too wet to improve and decided to abort. It´s easy to be smart in hindsight but these are split-second judgement calls and today was a bad day at the office for him. The way I know Lewis, though, he will take that disappointment and make it into extra motivation for the race. We seem to have strong pace in wet and dry conditions, so I am sure we will see our two cars fighting for the lead sooner rather than later tomorrow afternoon.
Jenson Button
At the start of the session, I was really looking forward to getting out there. And, as soon as we did, we found the grip of the circuit, and I felt confident. I even did a lap in Q1 that was quickest overall, but I ran wide at the final corner in traffic, and that time was disallowed – nonetheless, I think it showed that, in difficult circumstances, we often tend make the best of things. On my final lap in Q3, I thought it was all over in the first sector: I made a mistake coming out of Turn Five and had a massive snap of oversteer onto the straight, but I still managed to make up the time over the rest of the lap. I would love there to be changeable conditions in the race tomorrow, but, realistically, if it’s dry, we’re not going to be quite as competitive as we were today. We’ll do our best to be as close to the front as possible, of course we will, but we’ll need to have a perfect race to get a decent result. Even so, I’m really happy to be third – in front of the my family, my friends and the British crowd – their support has been so uplifting throughout this whole event.
Kevin Magnussen
It was a very tricky qualifying session. Jenson starting third is fantastic for both him and the team, but I’m satisfied with fifth. It was really hard to know how the track would be from lap to lap, so I was playing it relatively conservatively. Right now, I regret not pushing more – but it’s always so tricky to know how much more you can do. I was quite surprised by how dry it was at the end of Q3. I didn’t even think we’d need to go out at the end because it wasn’t anywhere near dry enough – but the conditions were drier than we thought. It’s hard to say just what we can do on Sunday. We’re in a good position for the start of the race, but, realistically, we’re out of position. Still, I’ll be giving it everything tomorrow.
Romain Grosjean,
It was a good session for me despite the tricky weather conditions here today – certainly the rain was good for my garden! Q1 was tricky, but fortunately we used slick tyres at the right time. Unfortunately in Q2 I had a yellow flag in turn six otherwise I think that I would have been through to Q3. The car felt good in qualifying compared to the rest of the weekend and that is quite important for us. Everyone did a good job, worked very hard and now the car is where I like it to be. I hope that tomorrow it will be the case again and we can go from there and push as hard as we can to score points.
Pastor Maldonado,
We had a lack of fuel during the second qualifying session which meant I had to stop the car out on track. The team are investigating to find out what happened as otherwise the car felt good and we had a strong opportunity to be in the top ten. The pace was certainly there this morning and the car was doing what I wanted it to do. We had a good strategy through the difficult weather conditions today so naturally I’m a bit disappointed with where we ended up on the grid. Now the focus is to get the best result possible in tomorrow’s race.
Kamui Kobayashi
After the rain on Friday night we started FP3 on wets but after the installation lap it was clear the track was ready for inters. We went out early to see how they were performing and found we had some traction issues, but otherwise the car was ok. As the rain had started to fall again we then waited out most of the rest of the session before going out with a few minutes left on another set of inters to run to the flag. In Q1 I went out early on a set of inters but after a couple of laps it looked like we could try slicks. We boxed and went onto a set of options but soon after going back out on track I was told to box again because of a problem on the car. We made a couple of adjustments and went back out for another run on options but I had the same technical issue and couldn’t go any quicker. It’s obviously a shame because today was one of those sessions where we could have had one or both cars in Q2 but it wasn’t to be.
Marcus Ericsson
FP3 started wet but the track conditions were ok so we did the first full run on inters. During that run the rain started coming down again, particularly in sector two where it was pretty wet, so we boxed and waited with most of the other cars for the rain to stop before going out again on wets for the final few laps. In quali we went out with most of the pack on inters and then made the call to go to options pretty much as soon as I was back in the garage. The conditions were pretty critical and I made a mistake in sector two when I was really pushing – after that I couldn’t recover the time and we ended up where we are. Tomorrow the conditions look like they’ll be similar to today and we know that could give us opportunities, especially with the cars that will be around us on the grid as I’m sure they’ll all be pushing hard right from the start – we need to be there when it counts so we’ll work as hard as we can to make sure we are.
Nico: Hulkenberg
That worked out really well for us and I’m very happy to come away with fourth place on the grid. On days like this you just need to be in the right place, with good timing and a little bit of luck. The track conditions were changing so much and at the end of Q3 I’ve never seen a track dry so quickly. There were a few spots of rain in the middle of the session, but on my final lap it was completely dry. Fourth place sets us up nicely for tomorrow, but it’s hard to know exactly where we stand in terms of race pace. We definitely made some progress with the car balance overnight with some tweaks and it was a lot less windy today, which worked in our favour. There is an interesting grid, which will hopefully make for an exciting race for the fans.
Sergio Perez
Today leaves us with mixed feelings. It was very good to get both cars in Q3 and ahead of some of our most direct competitors. Had they offered us this result before the session, we would have been satisfied; however, it is also disappointing as we know we could have had an even better result. We were in P3 up to the last lap, but when the track improved and I went out for a last run I ran a bit wide in turn 12 and lost all the temperature from my tyres. I also had to let some cars through and that made it a big problem for me. Otherwise I am confident we would have improved enough to stay in the front two rows. It's a shame because we were making the tyres work really well until that moment and we were making the most of the conditions. Still, it is a very positive result and we should have a good opportunity to convert it into a good race and a lot of points. Silverstone is a very difficult place to overtake and track position is very important, so I am confident in that respect.
Valtteri Bottas:
The whole session was unbelievable. We left it too late to go out on the dry tyre so we didn't get the run in as it started to rain again. Truthfully we were unlucky it started to rain. We had the pace to get to Q3 so we missed a good opportunity. It's a long race tomorrow and we have a good car so we can still get back into the points, but again the weather will play its part.
Felipe Massa:
It was really a missed opportunity to get the car in a good position for tomorrow. We didn't expect the rain and the track was drying so we had to get the lap in. The moment it started raining again, that was it, it was over. We have a lot to do tomorrow and it will not be easy but the car is quicker than where we are.
Rob Smedley,
We have a good car so it's very disappointing to be in 17th and 18th. We were trying to mark the people on track but our timings were wrong. We didn't see the rain coming as quickly as it did, but that's not an excuse, it's an error which we can't make again. How we recover tomorrow is important now and getting into the points is still our goal, as we have the car for it and we need to try and get as many points as we can over our closest championship rivals.
