SPIELBERG, Austria -- Lewis Hamilton took pole position at the Austrian Grand Prix in a thrilling wet/dry session that produced an unusual grid for Sunday's race.
Nico Rosberg set the second fastest time on the drying track, but will be shuffled down the order to seventh once his five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change is factored in. That will promote Force India's Nico Hulkenberg to the front row of the grid and see Jenson Button start third as Sebastian Vettel is also due a five-place grid drop after setting the fourth fastest time. Kimi Raikkonen will therefore start fourth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in fifth and Valtteri Bottas in sixth. Max Verstappen will move up one place to eighth, while Felipe Massa remains in tenth place behind Vettel.
However, Hulkenberg is under investigation for setting his fastest Q1 time under yellow flags, meaning another penalty could change the face of the grid once again.
Q3 started wet and all the drivers ventured out on intermediate tyres. However, the drying conditions saw lap times fall by over 10 seconds over the course of the 12 minute session, with Hamilton ultimately coming out on top with his final run on ultra-softs. Hulkenberg was the first driver to switch to slick tyres as the track dried and that offered an advantage as he had three attempts at a quick lap on ultra-softs compared to the two laps of the rest of the top ten.
To add to the mix on Sunday, the Ferrari and Red Bull drivers will start the race on super-soft tyres after setting their best Q2 times on that compound. The rest of the drivers will start on ultra-softs.
Esteban Gutierrez just missed out on a place in Q3 by 0.006s and will line up 11th on the grid ahead of Pascal Wehrlein, who scored a career-best grid position in 12th. Romain Grosjean will start 13th ahead of Fernando Alonso in 14th, who appeared to get caught out by the incoming rain at the end of Q2. Carlos Sainz suffered an engine failure at the end of Q1, meaning he was unable to set a time in Q2, leaving him 15th on the grid.
Following Rosberg's suspension failure in final practice, Sergio Perez and Daniil Kvyat suffered similar problems in Q1. The Force India's right rear suspension broke first, but Perez was able to nurse the car back to the pits. However, with the team unable to fix the car quickly, he was unable to contest Q2 and will start 16th on the grid.
Kvyat's incident was far more dramatic and resulted in the session being postponed for 16 minutes. The Toro Rosso's suspension broke as Kvyat strayed on to the yellow kerbs on the outside of the track, sending extreme vibrations through the rear of the car. The right-rear suspension gave way, effectively steering the car from the rear towards the inside of the track and towards the tyre barrier that divides the track from the pit lane.
The Russian was lucky that it was only the front of the car that took the blow, and the rest of the wreckage, in which he was sat, continued off towards the run off area for the final turn. Kvyat was able to walk away from the accident but his qualifying session was over, leaving him 20th overall.
The Renaults of Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer also dropped out in the session along with Manor's Rio Haryanto and the two Saubers, which will make up the back row of the grid.