Lewis Hamilton is on pole for the British Grand Prix after flying round Silverstone more than half a second quicker than his rivals.

The British flyer, who trails Sebastian Vettel in the drivers' standings by 20 points heading into Sunday’s race, was 0.547 seconds quicker than Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and has equalled the record of five pole positions at the British Grand Prix, along with Jim Clark.

Vettel qualified third but was 0.756secs adrift of the Mercedes man while Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas was fourth but will start ninth after incurring a five-place grid penalty.

After qualifying, a delighted Hamilton felt it was imperative that he started on the front of the grid for the sake of his adoring public.

"I needed to make sure I got that lap in," he said. "I didn't do it last weekend. I need to do it for these guys."

Max Verstappen joins Vettel on the second row of the grid, while the rest of the top 10 is made up of Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon, Stoffel Vandoorne and Romain Grosjean.