Rosberg on pole for British GP

The Northamptonshire weather was described by German driver Nico Hülkenberg, who capitalized on the changeable conditions to log an impressive fourth place on the grid, as "unpredictable." The top-10 shootout for pole position began on a damp but drying track, only for the British drizzle to start again. Briefly, it therefore appeared that drivers' earlier laps would be the fastest, but the rain stopped as swiftly as it began, allowing those who gambled on a last-second lap to dramatically improve their times.

Nico Rosberg found the most pace on the drizzly Silverstone circuit, setting a time more than 1.5 seconds quicker than the competition at the end of the qualifying session.

"It was quite a crazy qualifying, it was changing all the time and that made it very, very difficult," Rosberg, the winner last time out in Austria, said after claiming pole position.

Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel will line up alongside Rosberg on the grid on Sunday, with McLaren's Jenson Button next in line in third. Vettel and his Renault-powered Red Bull have struggled all season to compete with the Mercedes at the front, but Saturday's tricky conditions neutered his horsepower deficit somewhat.

Vettel's engineer Guillaume "Rocky" Rocquelin sounded rather surprised himself over the team radio immediately after the decisive lap, as he called in to say: "P2 - attaboy!"

"Silverstone is the only place in the world where you can see this," Vettel said of the weather in response. "It's not necessarily nice, but it's unique."

Behind Hülkenberg, who has often shown himself something of a wet-weather specialist, Button's McLaren teammate Kevin Magnussen claimed fifth on the grid.

Disappointment for Hamilton

Home favorite Lewis Hamilton, also Rosberg's primary rival for the drivers' championship, aborted his final attempt at a fast lap, in what ultimately proved the best conditions to set a fast time. His earlier time was only good enough for sixth on the grid, handing Rosberg quite an advantage for the race on Sunday.

Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Eric Vergne rounded out the top 10, while German Adrian Sutil managed 14th spot in his Sauber.

Based on the form of the 2014 season to date, sixth-placed Hamilton should still prove Rosberg's main rival for a race win on Sunday. The best chance for Vettel or Button, in cars that have not yet been able to keep pace with the Mercedes, would be if the unpredictable British weather were to affect the Grand Prix as it did qualfiying.