Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton beat his Mercedes AMG F1 teammate Nico Rosberg by just two tenths of a second to take pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix for the 45th pole of his career. This moves him to joint third place with Sebastian Vettel who was less than two tenths behind Rosberg in third.
Topping Friday's second practice session as well as the rain hit third practice prior to qualifying hinted at a possible challenge by Ferrari to the domination by Mercedes. However, Vettel fell just short as the silver arrows scored their 19th consecutive pole position since the 2014 season. It is F1's second longest pole position streak by a single team behind Williams' 24 from the 1992 to 1993 seasons and McLaren's 17 from the 1988 to the 1989 season.
Last year's pole-sitter Felipe Massa was fourth fastest in his Williams-Mercedes with this year's Le Mans winner Nico Hulkenberg fifth fastest for Force India-Mercedes.
Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, Daniil Kvyat, Felipe Nasr and Romain Grosjean completed the top ten for Williams-Mercedes, Toro Rosso-Renault, Red Bull-Renault, Sauber-Ferrari and Lotus-Renault, respectively.
Former F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen yet again struggled in qualifying, managing just 18th with fellow former champ Jenson Button in his McLaren-Honda joining him among the drivers knocked out in the first segment of qualifying. Button's teammate Fernando Alonso fared only slightly better by managing to make it to the second segment of qualifying.
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