Lewis Hamilton leaves it late to grab pole for British Grand Prix at Silverstone

Hamilton hadn't set a time in Q3 when he came out with just three minutes left, and the pressure was on as Nico Rosberg was on provisional pole with a time of 1.29.606, some seven tenths faster than the next-quickest driver.

The British driver had actually set a provisional pole position time earlier in Q3, only to have it scrubbed off by stewards: Hamilton had run off the track at Copse and been adjudged to have cut too much off the corner.

That left the reigning F1 champion just one chance to record a time - but as his flying lap got under way it seemed that he would fail to overhaul Rosberg, the Brit going slower than his team-mate in the opening couple of sectors.

But the home crowd favourite responded in style with some blistering driving in the final few sectors to set the fastest time by a quarter of a second with a lap of 1:29.287 - with Rosberg unable to improve his earlier time in his final flying lap, Hamilton was confirmed on pole.

Rosberg's place on the front row was briefly in doubt as he was called to a stewards' enquiry about how long he had taken on a slow out lap that breached rules, but no further action was taken.

"It wasn't the cleanest qualifying session," he added of his penalty incident. "I touched the kerb and it pulled me further, I didn't feel like I was driving wide....

"I was sitting in the garage and knew I couldn't let the guys down and I'm grateful I got the final lap in."

Huge cheers went up around the circuit as Hamilton lit up the screens, with a 140,000 crowd expecting to witness his third successive British Grand Prix win on Sunday and fourth in total.

"Lewis in Silverstone with the crowd behind him, it gives him an extra one tenth," said the team's non-executive chairman Niki Lauda.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was third fastest, seven tenths back, with another stand-out performance, while his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was fourth fastest and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen fifth.

Sebastian Vettel was the big loser in qualifying: just sixth fastest, the German will start from 11th on the grid after his Ferrari was hit with a five-place penalty for the second race running, due to a gearbox change.

Rosberg poured praise on both his car and his team-mate: "They've given us a fantastic car. It's a pleasure to drive... it feels like its on rails. It's awesome.

"It wasn't the best day for me," he added. "Congratulations to Lewis, but it's all to play for tomorrow."

Lewis Hamilton will line up on pole position for Sunday’s British Grand Prix, after the Mercedes driver set the fastest mark in qualifying on home soil at Silverstone. It was not plain sailing for the triple world champion, who saw his first time in Q3 being deleted for exceeding track limits at Copse. This gave Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg provisional pole but Hamilton recovered to clock a 1:29.287, which is nearly three seconds faster than his 2015 benchmark of 1:32.248. Team-mate Nico Rosberg slotted into second 0.319s adrift, as Mercedes extended his free practice dominance into Saturday afternoon.

Red Bull again were its nearest rival, albeit over one second off Hamilton’s pace, with Max Verstappen outqualifying Daniel Ricciardo for the first time since being promoted to the team ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Ferrari had a messy session with mistakes from both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn span and ran wide in Q2 but still managed to advance through the final part of qualifying where he logged the fifth fastest time. His German team-mate, who is set to serve a five-place grid penalty for taking a new gearbox, finished sixth, ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the lead Williams.

Carlos Sainz starred again in the Toro Rosso with the Spaniard hoisting his STR11 up to P8 in Q3. Nico Hulkenberg was the only Force India driver involved in the final part of qualifying, with the former Le Mans winner securing ninth.

Fernando Alonso hooked up a beautiful lap in Q2 to make it one McLaren-Honda into the final 12 minutes of action at Silverstone.

Sergio Perez narrowly missed out on making the cut for the pole position shootout, lapping a tenth slower than his Force India team-mate in Q2. The Mexican headed Williams’ Felipe Massa and the two Haas of Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez. Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat could only manage the 15th fastest mark, six tenths adrift of Sainz’ Q2 mark, but the Russian was fuming for being impeded by Kevin Magnussen on his final flyer.

The Dane made it one Renault in the middle segment of qualifying but his sole Q2 attempt left him nearly eight second off the pace.

Jenson Button was the highest profile driver knocked out of Q1, with the 2009 world champion sat in the McLaren-Honda as Magnussen bumped him into the drop zone for a mere 0.059s.

Fellow Brit and Renault rookie Jolyon Palmer also failed advance to Q2 for his maiden grand prix appearance at Silverstone. After scoring his first ever championship point in Austria, Pascal Wehrlein saw Manor team-mate Rio Haryanto draw level in their qualifying battle. The Indonesian was 0.053 faster to make it 5-5 on Saturdays so far this season between the two rookies.

Following his heavy crash in FP3, Marcus Ericsson was sent to the hospital and could not take part in qualifying, which rendered his five-place grid for his C35 needing a new gearbox moot. The surviving Sauber of Felipe Nasr finished 21st and last amongst the drivers in action this afternoon. The Brazilian sophomore was nearly 0.4s off Wehrlein ahead of him.