British Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton beats Nico Rosberg for home pole

Rosberg led the way through the first two segments of the session, but Hamilton leapt onto provisional pole during the first runs in Q3, which proved enough to take pole by 0.113s when neither improved later on.

Mercedes ended up with a substantial seven-tenth gap to the rest of the field, as Williams got the better of Ferrari to be best-of-the-rest at Silverstone.

The Grove outfit locked out the second row of the grid, with Felipe Massa improving on his second Q3 run to edge out team-mate Valtteri Bottas by less than a tenth.

Kimi Raikkonen outqualified Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel for only the second time this season by setting the fifth fastest time.

Vettel dropped time in the final sector on his first Q3 run and was then baulked by traffic on his final effort so failed to improve.

Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat edged out the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz Jr by just 0.013s to qualify seventh fastest, while team-mate Daniel Ricciardo wound up slowest of the top-10 runners after losing his best lap in Q3 to a track-limits offence and a late improvement on his single new-tyre run by the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg.

The second revised VJM08 of Sergio Perez missed out on a chance to make the top-10 shootout after running wide at Copse on his best lap.

The Mexican ended up 11th fastest, fractionally clear of Romain Grosjean's Lotus, until the Franco-Swiss had his best time deleted for a track limits offence at the final corner.

Fortunately for Grosjean, his second best lap was still good enough for 12th, ahead of a frustrated Max Verstappen.

The teenager complained vociferously about a lack of rear grip from his Toro Rosso throughout his qualifying session, which ended disappointingly after the STR10 showed strong form throughout free practice.

He was close to dropping out in Q1 after having his best time deleted for exceeding track limits at Copse, then struggled to 13th in Q2.

The second Lotus of Pastor Maldonado was penalised for track limits offences in Q1 and Q2 and wound up 14th fastest overall, fractionally slower than Verstappen but over three tenths clear of Marcus Ericsson in the best of the two Sauber-Ferraris.

The Swede's Sauber team-mate Felipe Nasr, the McLaren-Hondas of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, and both Manor Marussias filled the bottom five places on the timesheet.

Both Nasr and Alonso agonisingly missed the Q2 cut by less than a tenth of a second, thanks to Maldonado having his best time scrubbed for running off the track at Copse.

PROVISIONAL STARTING GRID: