Lewis Hamilton earned a standing ovation from his adoring Silverstone crowd after storming to a dominant pole position at the British GP.
Hamilton's scintillating lap was half a second better than the best efforts of his rivals and leaves the 32-year-old just one short of equalling Michael Schumacher's all-time record for the most poles in F1.
"That lap felt great and I wasn't expecting to have a gap like that," said Hamilton as he celebrated the fifth pole position of his career on home soil.
The rights and wrongs of Hamilton's no-show at the F1 Live event in London will, however, continued to be debated, but Hamilton's response to his critics on the track was emphatic.
The Englishman, already on provisional pole after the opening Q3 runs, was mighty through the fast middle sector at Silverstone and improved by over half a second on his final lap to bring the Silverstone crowd to its feet.
"He owned pole position today," accepted title rival Sebastian Vettel with the +0.547 seconds margin between pole and the second-fastest car the biggest of the year so far.
Vettel's Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari will line up alongside Hamilton on the front row after the Finn narrowly out-qualified the world championship leader.
"We have a good car and for the race we can challenge them," said Raikkonen.
Hamilton will be exposed to the twin threat from the Ferrari as Valtteri Bottas, fastest in Friday practice, will have to start from a lowly ninth due to a five-place grid penalty.
It means, even if Hamilton makes a clean start, Ferrari can try to undercut the Mercedes with one of their drivers and attempt an overcut with the other in a 'pincer-style movement.
Like Hamilton in Austria a week ago, Bottas will begin the race on the slower soft tyres and made a mistake on his final flying lap.
Stoffel Vandoorne out-qualified McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso - certain, in any case to be last due to a series of engine-related grid penalties - for the first time this season but the Spaniard did at least claim the distinction of topping the timesheets in Q1 after being the only driver to switch to slick tyres as the circuit began to dry.
An engine problem meant Daniel Ricciardo was unable to progress from Q1 and will join Alonso on the back row on Sunday. The Australian had already picked up a five-place grid penalty for his own unscheduled gearbox change ahead of final practice.
Renault's Nico Hulkenberg produced the standout performance of the Qualifying hour by muscling his Renault to sixth. Team-mate Jolyon Palmer was 11th but nearly a second slower.
* Bottas to be relegated five places due to unscheduled gearbox change and Alonso to be demoted 30 places due to engine penalties
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