Qualifying - Hamilton on pole in Spielberg drama

Lewis Hamilton is on pole for the seventh time in eight races, two tenths up team-mate Nico Rosberg in a dramatic qualifying at the Red Bull Ring. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was third.

Hamilton also equaled Vettel's 45 career pole positions, with just Ayrton Senna (65) and Michael Schumacher (68) ahead; the Briton was also just half a second off the all-time best lap in the Red Bull Ring (Schumacher, 2003).

With rain out of the way and a drying track, it was mixed conditions in Q1, with fast-improving laps from all drivers as they switched from inters to slicks.

The big elimination was Kimi Raikkonen with a mistimed lap, ending up in 18th to the surprise of everyone. The team radioed Kimi his position, to which the Finn reacted "What? How the **** is that possible?". Also in the drop zone and out in Q1 were Perez, Button, Merhi and Stevens.

During Q2, it was better conditions and close up-front between Mercedes and Ferrari, with Hamilton not quite finding his best times. It was the final session for Alonso, 14th, as well as Maldonado, Ericsson, Sainz, and Ricciardo.

Into the shootout, Mercedes battled out in the first runs and Hamilton managed a great lap to keep Rosberg two tenths down in P2, with Vettel ahead of both Williams as best of the rest.

In the end, it was final laps drama as both Hamilton and Rosberg lost control and spun out of the track, also resulting in yellow flags and securing the positions in the top ten.

QUALIFYING RESULT IN SPIELBERG:

1 Lewis Hamilton — 1:08.455
2 Nico Rosberg — +0.200
3 Sebastian Vettel — +0.355
4 Felipe Massa — +0.737
5 Nico Hulkenberg — +0.823
6 Valtteri Bottas — +0.864
7 Max Verstappen — +1.157
8 Daniil Kvyat — +1.239
9 Felipe Nasr — +1.258
10 Romain Grosjean —