Lewis Hamilton delighted a home crowd on Saturday when he stormed to pole position for the British Formula One Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton clocked 1 minute 29.607 seconds on the 5.891km course on a sunny afternoon, racing almost half a second faster than Rosberg, who had 1:30.059.

It was Hamilton’s second pole of the season and fifth for Mercedes.

World champion Sebastian Vettel was third ahead of Red Bull teammate Mark Webber to make the second row of Sunday’s grid.

Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen was ninth fastest followed by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Vettel commands the standings with 132 points from seven races ahead of Alonso (96), Raikkonen (88) and Hamilton (77).