Lewis Hamilton equalled Jim Clark's record of five pole positions at the British Grand Prix after setting the pace in the qualifying race on Saturday, July 15 at Silverstone.

With a best timing of 1:26.600s, the Brit was 0.547s [biggest margin of the year] quicker than his Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who pipped his teammate and Driver Standings' leader Sebastian Vettel by 0.209s.

Notably, Hamilton, who finished a disappointing third in Austria last weekend, was leading the rest of the pack right from Q1. And in Q3, the 32-year-old was at his best, which will help him start Sunday's race from the first row of the grid along with Raikkonen.

A fourth straight pole for Hamilton at his home event comes as a big boost as he trails Vettel by 20 points in the driver standings.

Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas was the fourth fastest with a timing of 1:27.376s, but the Finnish driver will start the race from the ninth position after receiving a five-place grid penalty. Notably, the Mercedes driver stands third in driver standings after his wins in Austria and Bahrain.

Vettel was keeping up the pressure on the Hamilton through Q1 and Q2, but the German was outperformed by his teammate Raikkonen with a solid run in Q3 -- 1:27.147s.

"Well, I think the time he [Hamilton] put in especially in the end was very strong. I think the one he put in before we were able to beat but yeah, obviously the gap at the end was bigger, around half a second, a bit bigger, so I think he owned the pole position today," Vettel said.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen will start the race from the second row along with Vettel after finishing fifth. Renault's Nico Hulkenberg put on a good show at Silverstone on Saturday and managed to finish sixth, ahead of Force India's Sergio Perez and Esteban Esteban Ocon. Stoffel Vandoorne of McLaren and Romain Grosjean of Haas completed the top-10.

Hamilton, despite having outperformed his rivals on Saturday, is not willing to take things lightly and said he was excited about being in a tough battle with rival Ferrari drivers Vettel and Raikkonen.

"I think Sebastian and Kimi are putting up a serious fight. Ferraris have been exceptional this year, they've not really made any mistakes. Consistency is really why they're in the lead, they've got a great car and they're performing on the top level. It's great that we have this battle going between us all," Hamilton said.

When does the race start and where to watch it live



The British Grand Prix 2017 is scheduled for 12:30 pm local time, 5 pm IST and 7:30 am EST. Live streaming and TV listings are given below.