Kimi Raikkonen, re-signed by Ferrari for 2017, then showed why many people believe he does not deserve that new deal. First he spun off at the final corner, and then on his following effort ran wide in the Arena section. It prompted a shake of the head from his boss, Maurizio Arrivabene.

Raikkonen eventually put in a solid lap to go through, but he nor no-one could get anywhere near Hamilton. The next fastest car, the Red Bull of Verstappen, was 1.5s adrift. Alonso put in another impressive lap to make it into qualifying three in ninth. Both Force Indias, Felipe Massa, the two Haas drivers, Daniil Kvyat and Kevin Magnussen missed out.

At the beginning of the shootout for pole position, Rosberg had it all to do. He improved on his effort from the second segment, but still could not match Hamilton’s speed. The Englishman was fractionally slower than he had gone before yet still 0.3s up on his team-mate.

But the time was soon stripped away from Hamilton by the stewards for running wide at Copse corner. The pressure was on his final lap. The rest were not in contention.

Hamilton delivered, going even faster as he headed for the line. Rosberg could not get near him.

Final Positions after Qualifying:

1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1min 29.287secs

2 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:29.606

3 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:30.313

4 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 1:30.618

5 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:30.881

6 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 1:31.490

7 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams 1:31.557

8 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India 1:31.920

9 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:31.989

10 Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren 1:32.343

11 Sergio Perez (Mex) Force India 1:31.875

12 Felipe Massa (Bra) Williams 1:32.002

13 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas F1 1:32.050

14 Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Haas F1 1:32.241

15 Daniil Kvyat (Rus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:32.306

16 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Renault 1:37.060

17 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:32.788

18 Jolyon Palmer (Gbr) Renault 1:32.905

19 Rio Haryanto (Ina) Manor Racing 1:33.098

20 Pascal Wehrlein (Ger) Manor Racing 1:33.151

21 Felipe Nasr (Bra) Sauber-Ferrari 1:33.544

22 Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Sauber-Ferrari No Time

What's Hamilton's record at Silverstone?

The Ups

2008 – Winning spectacularly in the rain, thoroughly destroying the opposition to take the chequered flag by more than a minute. With everyone else spinning all over the shop, Hamilton walked on water.

2014 – Six years after his first, Hamilton’s second win at Silverstone was even more important, getting him back in the world championship. Nico Rosberg retired but Hamilton was hunting him down anyway.

2015 – Superb judgement – a quality he has not always showed – saw Hamilton chose the right time to switch to intermediate tyres and win at Silverstone for the second year in a row.