Lewis Hamilton takes Styrian Grand Prix pole position in heavy rain

The qualifying session for the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix in Austria was delayed by 46 minutes due to torrential downpour. Despite the expectation of a surprising result due to a late rain-drenched session, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton showed exactly why he is still the favourite to win the title by snatching pole position. It is now 2 for 2 for Mercedes, with Valtteri Bottas having started from pole in last week's opening race.

It was a very wet Saturday in Austria, but Hamilton managed to clock in an impressive lap that was 1.216 seconds faster than closest contender, Max Verstappen (Red Bull). Verstappen has shown great form throughout the weekend so far, and even looked like he had a real chance at stealing the top spot from the Mercedes drivers. Unfortunately, his car slid in the final corners of his flying lap, effectively losing his chance to beat Hamilton. Nevertheless, he will be in the front row, ready to challenge the pole sitter on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz continued to show that McLaren weren't just lucky with last week's impressive form. He took third place behind Verstappen, relegating Hamilton's teammate and last week's race winner, Bottas, to fourth place. This is Sainz' highest grid position in his career, showing Ferrari exactly what they will be getting next season.

On the other hand, it may be Sainz who will be regretting his decision to join the prancing horse. Charles Leclerc failed to even make it to Q3, after only managing to get to 11th place. He will also be facing a 3-place grid penalty, meaning he will start the race from all the way back in 14th place. This is the second race in a row that a Ferrari failed to advance to Q3. Sebastian Vettel scraped his way through this time, but could only go 10th fastest.

Hamilton ended the session with an impressive .787 gap ahead of Verstappen, a large margin by any standards. However, he admitted that it wasn't easy. According to the BBC he said, "The weather's obviously incredibly difficult for all of us. A lot of the time you can't even see where you're going."

Verstappen said the same thing, claiming that even if you as far back as 6 seconds behind the driver in front, you can hardly see anything.

Here are the full results of the qualifying session (pending the grid changes due to penalties):