as Rosberg, Vettel drop five places due to penalties
Lewis Hamilton took his fifth pole position of 2016 and the 54th of his career in a topsy-turvy wet Q3 session that saw Nico Rosberg finish second ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.
Rain began to fall at the end of Q2 and increased in intensity in the run-up to the final 12-minute session, leading to the 10 drivers who made it through to the top-10 shootout taking to the track on intermediate tyres.
The rain quickly abated, however, and as such, the times began to drop rapidly. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was first across the line with a lap of 1m20s but within a few minutes Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo chopped almost three seconds off that time before Hamilton dropped the benchmark to 1:16.232.
It was obvious that a gamble on slick tyres was approaching and it was Hulkenberg who made the move first. He immediately bettered Hamilton’s time by 1.2 seconds and the rest of the field headed towards the pit lane to swap to ultrasoft tyres.
With the track drying at a rapid rate, it was then all about timing and trying to get across the start/finish line at the last possible moment before the chequered flag in order to start a final flying lap.
And it was the Mercedes drivers who judged it best. As everyone found improvement, Hamilton found the conditions suiting him best and with purple times in each sector he vaulted to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:07.922.
Rosberg finished second, half a second adrift of his team-mate, while early ultrasoft adopter Hulkenberg, who had continued to pound around, posted a final time of 1:09.285 to claim third place in the session.
Vettel finished fourth ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button who had his best qualifying session since the Russian Grand Prix of 2014. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was sixth ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, the second Red Bull of Max Verstappen and the second Williams of Felipe Massa. The chance nature of the session was illustrated by a four-second spread from Hamilton’s P1 lap to Massa’s P10 time of 1:11.977.
The top 10 grid order is set to change, though, with second-placed Rosberg and fourth-placed Vettel due to take five-place penalties for tomorrow’s race owing to gearbox changes – Vettel’s as a precautionary measure and Rosberg’s due to an FP3 crash in which his rear suspension broke while running over kerbs at Turn 2.
Rosberg’s suspension issue followed a similar incident involving Max Verstappen during Friday's free practice sessions. The Dutchman ran wide over the new kerbs, which have been put in place to prevent drivers from exceeding the track limits, at Turn 5 and snapped his front-right suspension.
And there were more incidents in quialifying. First, Force India’s Sergio Pérez suffered a rear suspension failure early in Q1 and then, with just under two minutes left in the opening segment, Daniil Kvyat ran wide at Turn 8 and the right-rear suspension of his Toro Rosso collapsed. The failure sent him spinning across the track where the nose of his car hit the end of the pit entry wall. That collision then sent him spinning off into the gravel trap and hard into the barriers. Kvyat was unhurt but the session was halted for some time as his car was recovered and the debris was cleared.
With 1m44s left on the clock there was still time to for drivers to get out on track and cross the line before the chequered flag fell.
A long line of cars formed up at the pit exit in anticipation of the restart but the wait was too much for the second Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz. As he exited the pit lane smoke began to billow from the back of his car and his session ended. With yellow flags showing in Sectors 1 and 2 there was no chance of improvement and eliminated from the session, from P17 back, were Renault’s Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer, Manor’s Rio Haryanto, Kvyat and the Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr.
Q2 began with a threat of rain in the air and that led to a flurry of early activity as the field sought ‘banker’ laps. With the rain holding off as the session entered its final five minutes, both Ferrari and Red Bull made a strategic move by sending their drivers out on supersoft tyres. All four duly set their best time so the session on the red-banded Pirelli tyres and will start on that compound.
Mercedes attempted to respond, pitting its drivers for the harder tyre but then the rain began to fall and they were denied. They will, therefore, start on the softer but more fragile ultrasofts.
Eliminated at this stage from P11 back were Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez, Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein, the second Haas of Romain Grosjean, McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and the unfortunate Sainz and Pérez.
2016 Austrian Grand Prix – Qualifying1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:06.947 1:06.228 1:07.9222 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:06.516 1:06.403 1:08.465 *3 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:07.385 1:07.257 1:09.2854 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:06.761 1:06.602 1:09.781 *5 Jenson Button McLaren 1:07.653 1:07.572 1:09.9006 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:07.240 1:06.940 1:09.9017 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:07.500 1:06.840 1:09.9808 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:07.148 1:06.911 1:10.4409 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:07.131 1:06.866 1:11.15310 Felipe Massa Williams 1:07.419 1:07.145 1:11.97711 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:07.660 1:07.578 12 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:07.565 1:07.700 13 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:07.662 1:08.117 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:07.671 1:08.154 15 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:07.618 16 Sergio Perez Force India 1:07.657 17 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:07.941 18 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:07.965 19 Rio Haryanto Manor 1:08.026 20 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:08.409 21 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:08.418 22 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:08.446
* before penalties applied
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