Formula 1 ®
Mercedes are back in town with George and Lewis locking out the front row, Lando, makes it the first Silverstone all British qualifying! Red Bull’s wings have been clipped! Max happy with P4 and…Another mistake by Checo.
George claimed pole position for Sunday’s British Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton as British drivers claimed the top three spots on the grid with Lando Norris third to send the crowd wild at a cold, wet Silverstone.
It is the first time British drivers have taken the top-three spots for a Formula One race for 56 years, since the 1968 South African Grand Prix when Jim Clark started the race on pole, ahead of Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart.
Heavy rain before the session started made for tricky conditions, and caused a number of big names to slip up. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez spun out in Q1 and will start 19th, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also failed to make it to Q3.
But Mercedes had topped the morning practice session, and the Brackley team were fastest again in Q3, with Russell snatching pole from his team-mate by a 10th of a second and championship leader Max Verstappen nearly four 10ths off the pace.
George
What a feeling! At the start of this year, we couldn’t have even dreamt of being on pole position at Silverstone. Having three Brits in the top-three is absolutely mega too. The crowd has been incredible, and they give us all so much energy. Having myself, Lewis, and Lando (Norris) at the front of the grid just shows that!
The car at the moment feels so good. It came alive in Qualifying, and it was an absolute joy to drive around this amazing circuit. We are riding a wave at the moment, but our eyes are on tomorrow. We’ve got a race to win, and we know that the McLaren of Lando will be pushing us incredibly hard. Max (Verstappen) will also be in the fight, but I am so excited right now. We can’t wait for the race tomorrow.
Lewis
Having three Brits at the front of the grid for the British Grand Prix is incredible. A huge congratulations to George, he did such a great job to take pole position. We didn’t expect to be on the front-row this weekend. This result is therefore huge for us as a team. The car felt fantastic out there and everyone at Brackley and Brixworth deserves this.
It was all about getting the tyre temperatures in the right place today and then sealing the deal with a good lap. I think there was a little time left on the table which George managed to extract. I feel confident in the car for tomorrow’s race. With both myself and George on the front-row, we have an advantage in trying to keep Lando (Norris) behind. Let’s see what we can do.
Max
“A mixed Saturday. It was unlucky timing when I came out of turn seven and it started to rain, I tried to slow down in to that corner but the car still snapped on me and I was focused on keeping it out of the wall. Going in the gravel ripped up my floor and we had pretty significant damage from there on out. The Team did a great job trying to recover some of the bits and optimize the balance from front to rear, but it majorly affected our qualifying. I was lucky to be in Q3 after that, and in the end to qualify in P4 was a bit of a positive surprise and the best we could do today.
For the race, first we need a new floor, but I think it will be an exciting race and we will probably be a bit more on the attack trying to move up the grid as McLaren and Mercedes have been really quick in every session and have had a good weekend so far. Tomorrow is a new day, we’ll have to wait and see what the weather will do as well but I’m confident that if we have a clean car we can be in the mix.”
Lando
“Good laps by George and Lewis, both. They did an excellent job, they put in some nice laps. A little mistake on my part at the end, but P3 is still good.”
“It’s meant to rain again tomorrow, so I’m excited,” he added. “It’s going to be a good race. We’re quick… I can bring the fight to George and I can bring the fight to Lewis, so I’m excited to put on a good show tomorrow.
“I’m excited. I hope we’re going to have some good battles so I look forward to it.”
Fernando
QUALIFYING P10
“It’s good to have both cars make it into Q3 today after a few difficult Saturdays for the team. Unfortunately, we didn’t complete the final lap in Q3 after some traffic on the out-lap with Carlos [Sainz] and Oscar [Piastri].
We managed to finish in the top three in Q2 and the pace was competitive, so I think there was a little more in it for us than tenth position in the end. Hopefully, we can be fighting for the points with both cars in tomorrow’s race.”