2016 F1 Round 10 British Grand Prix Qualifying – Hamilton beats Rosberg to pole after first Q3 time deleted

Qualifying for the 2016 British Grand Prix took place at Silverstone on July 9. Hamilton took pole with a 1:29.287, beating Rosberg by 0.319 seconds. Verstappen and Ricciardo occupied the second row, with both Red Bulls directly behind the Mercedes pair.

Archive photograph of the grid at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix on July 10, 2016.

Hamilton initially set a 1:29.339 on his first Q3 run, but the time was deleted for exceeding track limits at Copse. He went faster on his final attempt to reclaim the top spot with a 1:29.287, while Rosberg was second on a 1:29.606.

Verstappen took third with a 1:30.313, outpacing team-mate Ricciardo in Q1, Q2 and Q3. Ricciardo qualified fourth with a 1:30.618. Both Red Bulls were more than a second off pole but still ahead of the two Ferraris.

Räikkönen was fifth and Vettel sixth. Vettel faced a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, so his actual starting position on Sunday would be further back than his qualifying result. Bottas was seventh, Sainz eighth, Hülkenberg ninth and Alonso tenth.

Sainz’s late improvement in Q2 pushed Pérez down to eleventh, just 0.135 seconds behind Alonso. Massa was twelfth, followed by Grosjean and Gutiérrez in thirteenth and fourteenth, Kvyat in fifteenth and Magnussen in sixteenth.

Button’s McLaren suffered a loose rear wing, costing him the chance to complete a valid final Q1 attempt. He finished seventeenth, ahead of Palmer in eighteenth, Haryanto in nineteenth, Wehrlein in twentieth and Nasr in twenty-first.

Ericsson had a heavy crash in FP3 that morning and was taken to hospital for routine medical checks. His team later confirmed that he was unhurt, but he did not return to the circuit in time for qualifying. The other 21 drivers completed qualifying laps.

Hamilton held his nerve after his first Q3 time was deleted and took pole with an even faster final lap. Rosberg and the two Red Bulls lined up second through fourth, while Vettel’s gearbox penalty would alter Sunday’s grid.