Lewis Hamilton takes home sprint pole at Silverstone ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen.
Strong start for Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton starts off his weekend at Silverstone as the man to beat after leading FP1 earlier today and now securing pole position for tomorrow’s sprint race. Hamilton led both SQ1 and SQ2 before taking his place at the top again in SQ3, only 0.011 seconds ahead of Kimi Antonelli in second. His teammate Charles Leclerc finished the session in P4, and so it’s clear Ferrari are the team to top this weekend.
Mixed feelings for Mercedes
Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli did well in qualifying to secure P2 just behind Lewis Hamilton. Antonelli is another one looking strong this weekend as he also finished P2 in FP1 and will most likely be engaged in battles with Hamilton during the sprint tomorrow.
On the other side of the garage, George Russell qualified in P5 for the sprint after struggling throughout the session, just seemingly unable to find the pace to match those ahead. It’s unclear at this stage why Russell was having a hard time of it, but whatever the problem is, it needs to be fixed.
McLaren on the back foot
Lando Norris qualified in P6, with his teammate Oscar Piastri right behind him in P7. During SQ1, Norris sustained some damage as a part of one of his wings fell off of the car, thus causing him to lose downforce. It’s the home race for both Norris and McLaren itself and so they will be hoping to improve their results as the weekend progresses.
Positives for Red Bull
Max Verstappen had a great time out in SQ3 to bring it home in P3 for tomorrow’s sprint. His teammate Isack Hadjar finished the session in P8, which is a fairly good result for the young driver. The pace of the Red Bull has looked good recently and so it should come as a shock to no one if such results continue across the weekend.
The rest of the grid
VCARB continue their impressive form for yet another double SQ3, with drivers Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad qualifying in P9 and P10. Lawson looked particularly promising as he finished P4 in SQ2.
British driver Oliver Bearman failed to make it out of SQ1 after Alex Albon knocked him out in an upgraded Williams.
Aston Martin make up the final row of the grid once again, with both drivers ending up more than 3.6 seconds off the pace, something we’ve unfortunately come to expect from the green team this season.
Feature image courtesy of Formula 1