Nico Rosberg snatched pole position in the closing seconds of qualifying for the British Grand Prix in what is a mixed up grid.
The Mercedes driver was sat second behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton who secured provisional pole on his first lap, but with improving conditions came second attempts and a mistake from Hamilton left Rosberg to pick up the top spot.
Hamilton meanwhile tumbled down the order as those around him improved. Sebastian Vettel will start second, Jenson Button third for McLaren and Nico Hulkenberg fourth.
The second McLaren of Kevin Magnussen was fifth quickest whilst Hamilton could only manage sixth.
An under investigation Sergio Perez was seventh for Force India with Daniel Ricciardo and the Toro Rosso pairing completing the top ten.
Q1 was an even more confusing affair with some big names dropping out, leaving a slot for the Marussia pair to pop into Q2 to take their best ever qualifying position in P12 for Jules Bianchi and P13 for Max Chilton – the Briton will however start P18 after a gearbox penalty.
Valtteri Bottas, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen were the surprise Q1 drop-outs as both teams failed to read the weather correctly and switched to slicks far too late.
Qualifying – 2014 British Grand Prix
| # | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:40.380 | 1:35.179 | 1:35.766 |
| 02 | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:45.086 | 1:36.410 | 1:37.386 |
| 03 | J. Button | McLaren | 1:44.425 | 1:36.579 | 1:38.200 |
| 04 | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:41.271 | 1:37.112 | 1:38.329 |
| 05 | K. Magnussen | McLaren | 1:42.507 | 1:37.370 | 1:38.417 |
| 06 | L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:41.058 | 1:34.870 | 1:39.232 |
| 07 | S. Perez | Force India | 1:42.146 | 1:37.350 | 1:40.457 |
| 08 | D. Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:44.710 | 1:38.166 | 1:40.606 |
| 09 | D. Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:41.032 | 1:36.813 | 1:40.707 |
| 10 | J. Vergne | Toro Rosso | 1:43.040 | 1:37.800 | 1:40.855 |
| 11 | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 1:43.121 | 1:38.496 | |
| 12 | J. Bianchi | Marussia | 1:41.169 | 1:38.709 | |
| 13 | M. Chilton | Marussia | 1:42.085 | 1:39.800 | |
| 14 | E. Gutierrez | Sauber | 1:43.285 | 1:40.912 | |
| 15 | P. Maldonado | Lotus | 1:43.892 | 1:44.018 | |
| 16 | A. Sutil | Sauber | 1:42.603 | No Time | |
| 17 | V. Bottas | Williams | 1:45.318 | ||
| 18 | F. Massa | Williams | 1:45.695 | ||
| 19 | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1:45.935 | ||
| 20 | K. Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:46.684 | ||
| 21 | M. Ericsson | Caterham | 1:49.421 | ||
| 22 | K. Kobayashi | Caterham | 1:49.625 |
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