Sebastian Vettel takes penalty, Lewis Hamilton expects to follow suit

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg will start alongside Hamilton on the front row while Jenson Button sealed a sensational third – his highest grid slot in almost two years.

With moments left it was impossible to predict who would end up at the top of the order, before Hamilton stole a march on his rivals to end up half-a-second faster than his Mercedes team-mate Rosberg and claim the 54th pole of his career.

Hamilton, yet to open his winning account at the Red Bull Ring, said: “I was way off the pace”.

The theory is that it will deter drivers, who have been exceeding track limits in a bid to post a faster lap, but they have also contributed to a number of suspension failures this weekend.

Vettel ended the session fourth fastest with Raikkonen sixth, although the former then has to take a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

“I really like the new asphalt here, it completely transforms the circuit”, Rosberg told Sky F1. The Russian ran over the kerbing on the exit of turn eight leading to a rear suspension failure.

Meanwhile, Vestappen said, “The conditions today meant we had to switch from dry to wet and then back to dry, which made it interesting”. The session was suspended as the marshals cleared the debris from Kvyat’s shattered auto.

On a day of variables with the weather swinging from bright sunshine to torrential rain and back again, and with waves of water rippling down the pit straight, Rosberg did not falter and Lewis Hamilton, 24 points behind the German with 13 races remaining, was second in both sessions.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo was fifth for Red Bull as they tried to impress on their “home” circuit in the Styrian Alps.

Kvyat was the only surprise drop from Q1 along with the two Renaults in 17th and 18th (Kevin Magnussen ahead of Jolyon Palmer on this occasion), Rio Haryanto’s MRT in 19th, and the two Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr on the final row. It just added to the excitement of the whole thing.

“It was a question of how much risk you were taking and when you crossed the line – the later the better”, said Vettel.

“At the end it was about getting the last lap in”.

“We’ve seen a couple of incidents already – how many more is it going to take before a vehicle ends up in the wall and someone gets hurt?” “It is a decent start to the weekend, but Lewis didn’t get his laps together so he didn’t really show what he can do”. “But equally I could and should have taken more risks. If I didn’t finish my lap or there had been a yellow flag I wouldn’t have been able to get pole, but it was the risk I took and fortunately it paid off, so very happy with it”.