British Grand Prix 2013: Lewis Hamilton snatches pole on home soil

British Grand Prix 2013: Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton grabs pole in front of the home crowd at Silverstone

By Sportsbeat
Saturday 29 June 2013, 14:52 UK

Lewis Hamilton will start from pole on Sunday Photo: Mercedes AMG Petronas

Lewis Hamilton grabbed pole for the British Grand Prix in a sensational lap in the last seconds of qualifying to become the first home driver to front the grid at Silverstone in six years.

The Brit edged out Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg by four tenths of a second with a lap time of 1.26.6 minutes, as they locked out the front row.

World champion Sebastian Vettel secured third, while his team-mate Mark Webber will start his last-ever British Grand Prix from fourth place.

But there was disappointment for home crowd favourite Jenson Button, as he narrowly missed out on a place in Q3, only managing 11th place.

Fellow home driver Paul di Resta secured fifth place – his best performance at a British Grand Prix qualifying session.

It was a miserable qualifying session for Ferrari with only Alonso making it through to Q3, eventually qualifying in tenth spot, while Massa only managed 12th.

Both Ferrari drivers struggled throughout as they scraped through Q1 narrowly avoiding elimination in 14th and 15th.

The usual suspects found themselves eliminated from Q1 – Brit Max Chilton qualifying in last place at his first home Grand Prix.

Although, the Marussia driver will start from 21st after Caterham’s Giedo Van der Garde carries a five-place grid penalty from his clash with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg in Canada.