Usually weather tends to be a major factor when F1 circus arrives in Silverstone and it didn't let us down this year, either! The track was damp when qualifying got underway so everyone started to Q1 on the intermediate tyres. The track improved, however, so at the end of the session everyone went out on the soft tyres, which in Silverstone meant the white-marked medium tyres. The rain started again at the very end of the first session, which lead to some nasty surprises in regard of some drivers. Both Williams drivers were out of Q2! This must have been a huge disappointment for Bottas, who stood on the podium just two weeks ago! Also both Ferrari drivers were unable to set lap times fast enough to make it into Q2. I was so so gutted for Kimi! He has been struggling with his F14T the whole season and more disappointments seem to be coming all the time... Ferrari should have done a better job in terms of the timing. So easy for me to sit on the sofa and write this, haha ;) Vettel was also on edge as he was the last driver to get into Q2! Some positive surprises then: due to the poor timing of both Williams and Ferrari, both Marussia drivers made it through to Q2 with Chilton being 6th fastest in Q1, wow!
Q2 got underway in wet conditions so at the beginning the intermediate tyres were the right call. Sebastian managed to pull out a splendid lap but his lap time was deleted only a moment later due to a track limits violation at turn 9. Like in the first session the track improved all the time and at the end of Q2 it was time for the soft tyres. The Mercedes duo topped the timesheets and Sebastian was third fastest with a 1,5-second gap to Hamilton. No major surprises in this session: both Lotus drivers were out of Q3 as well as the Marussia duo. But Bianchi qualified 12th, which was quite impressive! His team-mate Chilton qualified 13th but he will be dropped five positions due to a gear box change. Sauber's Gutierrez span and got stuck on the gravel when there was only a minute left in the clock so the Mexican's qualifying was over.
The track was dry when it was time for the final and crucial session. Because nobody seemed to know for sure if it was going to rain more or not, everyone headed out right at the beginning. But Sebastian aborted his flying lap and didn't set a lap time! And a moment later we heard messages on the team radios about rain at some areas of the circuit... At this point I was afraid that Sebastian's "goose was cooked": there was no way he could set a competitive lap time if it was raining! Ricciardo didn't even go out at the end of the session and so didn't the Toro Rosso drivers Kvyat and Vergne. But what an outstanding and miraculous turn the qualifying got in the last minutes! Hamilton had the provisional pole and actually the Briton decided to abort his last flying lap for some reason and came in the pits instead. It turned out that in spite of the rain in some areas the last sector had improved unbelievably much! I watched closely Sebastian's last run and after sector two the German was 2,6 seconds down on Hamilton's time! I was prepared to give up: Sebastian wasn't going to make it on the front row or anywhere near it. But I couldn't believe my eyes when Sebastian crossed the finish line and made it in P1! He had stormed through the final sector, which had improved in a way many thought wasn't possible! Absolutely amazing! Though Rosberg managed to set even a second faster lap time, I was so delighted for Sebastian's P2 :) McLaren's Button drove impressively well in front of his home crowd and made it in P3! Force India's Hulkenberg qualified in P4 and Magnussen in the other McLaren in P5. Hamilton who had made the call to abort his second run was left in P6 so this turned out to be a very wrong call indeed! Perez in the other Force India qualified 7th, Sebastian's team-mate Ricciardo 8th, Kvyat 9th and Vergne 10th. Finally Sebastian managed to outqualify his team-mate, I was sooo happy!
In addition to Chilton's penalty there've been other penalties as well. Gutierrez faced a 10-place grid drop due to the unsafe release from the pits at Austria. Both Caterham drivers got permission to take part in the race although their lap times exceeded the 107 % time.
What kind of a race am I expecting? A mixed one for sure! The British weather can be anything from sunshine to pouring rain! So there might be some big surprises in the race as well. I don't think Sebastian has a real chance to challenge Rosberg for the victory but I'm confident I'll see Sebastian on the podium today! Unless there'll be some technical issues... But they can't hit Sebastian's car in EVERY race, can they? But I don't know what kind of a result would be realistic to hope from Kimi. Even a points finish seems hard to achieve at least in normal conditions. But I know the Iceman will fight as hard as he can to make his way through the field! And although Hamilton starts from P6 he has his say in the battle for victory! The Briton started from P9 at Austria and in a couple of laps he had made his way up to fourth. I'm sure after the wrong decision in the qualifying Hamilton will be extra motivated to show what he's capable of in the race in front of his home crowd! By the way... I had a very nice dream about Kimi last night. Hope it's a good omen ;)
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