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Lewis Hamilton blasts to pole position for British Grand Prix

SILVERSTONE, England - Lewis Hamilton took pole position for his home British Grand Prix for the third year in a row on Saturday with a sensational lap that left him one step away from Michael Schumacher's Formula One record. Hamilton's championship-leading Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel, who has a 20-point advantage after nine of 20 races, qualified third. The Mercedes driver was half a second quicker than Ferrari's second placed Kimi Raikkonen and his time of one minute 26.600 seconds was so outrageously quick there were gasps before the crowd erupted. "I always try to leave the best to last," the Briton told retired champion Jenson Button in post-qualifying interviews on the grid. "I had to make sure I got that lap in. I couldn't do it last weekend (in Austria) so I made sure I could here." Hamilton still faced a nervous wait after race stewards announced they were investigating an incident involving French driver Romain Grosjean, who complained he had been blocked earlier in the session. They swiftly decided to take no further action. The Briton's mastery of a damp but drying track lit up an overcast afternoon and the pole was the 67th of his career, sixth of the season, and gave him every chance of equalling Schumacher's record 68 before the August break. The triple world champion has won the last three British Grands Prix and can equal the late Jim Clark's feat of four home wins in a row, and five in total, on Sunday. Saturday ensured he has already matched Clark's 50-year-old record of five British Grand Prix pole positions. "I feel amazing in front of a great crowd like this. I hope you liked the lap," Hamilton told the grandstands full of cheering fans. "I generally like it to be dry, but I like it when the conditions are tricky." Hamilton's Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas, winner in Austria, was fourth fastest but has a five-place penalty following a gearbox change. That promoted Red Bull's Dutch teenager Max Verstappen, who has suffered five retirements in the last seven races, to the second row. Renault's Nico Hulkenberg and his former Force India team mate Sergio Perez filled the third row. There was good news for beleaguered McLaren, who raised a cheer when Fernando Alonso made the most of improving conditions to set the fastest time in the first phase of qualifying, with Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne qualifying ninth.

Autoblog fan favorite car ads from Super Bowl XLIX

Super Bowl XLIX is in the books, and the New England Patriots emerged victorious. Of course, if you're like us, the big game wasn't so much about the battle between the east coast and west, so much as a fight between the world's automotive advertisers. We collected and collated all of last night's new ads and put them together for you to vote on. And yes, we're limiting this year's contest to last night's new features. That's why you aren't seeing Dodge's epic Wisdom among our collection of commercials, and it's a similar story with Chevrolet's Truck Guy Focus Group series, which highlights the new Colorado. You can still vote for your favorites. We won't be closing the voting on our Super Bowl page, so while the winners and losers are correct as of this writing, it's entirely possible that there could be some changes in the rankings as time goes on. So, without any further ado, here are the winning ads based on your voting. Nissan: With Dad Fiat: Ready For Action Jeep: Beautiful Lands BMW: Newfangled Idea Mercedes-Benz: Fable NASCAR: America Start Your Engines As for those ads that failed to impact you, loyal readers, Toyota was the absolute, undisputed loser. The Japanese brand ran four ads in total – two for Toyota and two for Lexus – and all of them have negative tallies as of this writing. Lexus' Make Some Noise and Lets Play and Toyota's One Bold Choice and My Bold Dad both had very weak showings among the commercials that aired, although they weren't alone. Neither Mazda nor Kia scored particularly well, despite featuring celebrity magic act Penn and Teller and former James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, respectively. Chevrolet was the winner of the losers, as of our writing, recording the fewest downvotes for its audience-punking The Big Game ad. If you want to take a second look at the losing ads, you can head back to our Super Bowl page for the complete collection. But for now, head into Comments and let us know what you think of the results.

2019 Autoblog Technology of the Year finalists revealed

Every fall, we line up a range of new models with the latest and most compelling automotive technology from the past year. We test everything from semi-autonomous systems like Tesla's Autopilot to trick suspension setups like the Multimatic spool-valve shocks on the Chevy Colorado ZR2. We spend months paring down the list to a small group of contenders. After testing, dinner and healthy debate, we tally up the votes and name our winner. For Autoblog's 2019 Technology of the Year Award, our three finalists are the Cadillac CT6 with Super Cruise, the Infiniti QX50 with Variable Compression Turbo and the Mercedes-AMG E 53 with EQ Boost. Super Cruise is an advanced SAE Level 2 semi-autonomous system, though Cadillac (unlike some of its rivals) is reluctant to push that point. Cadillac would like you to think of this as an advanced driver assistance feature rather than a semi-autonomous system. Super Cruise allows completely hands-free highway driving. Thanks to a driver-facing camera, the system forces the driver to keep his or her eyes on the road even if hands are off the wheel. Although the CT6 is being discontinued, look for Super Cruise to make its way to other Cadillacs soon. VC Turbo is a little more complicated. Basically, Infiniti's 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four can vary the compression ratio on the fly. In general, turbocharged engines are more efficient than naturally-aspirated engines when on boost, but can perform worse at low revs. VC Turbo allows for a best-of-both-worlds situation, increasing the compression at low revs and backing it off once the turbo spools up. The best part is that it does so seamlessly, with only a dash readout letting you know what's going on under the hood. Our third finalist is the EQ Boost 48-volt system in the Mercedes-AMG E 53. Like VC Turbo, EQ Boost does a lot just beneath the surface. Mercedes has developed a new turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six and paired it with a small electric motor. While the car can't run on electricity alone, the motor helps improve both efficiency and performance, smoothing shifts and filling in low-end torque before the turbos spool up. Think torque fill, similar to a McLaren P1. Who can complain about better fuel economy and more torque? Look for the 48-volt system to make its way into most of the Mercedes-Benz lineup. The winner will be revealed next week on Autoblog, and we'll present the award Jan. 15 at the Detroit Auto Show. Related Video: