British Grand Prix: Qualifying – Hamilton surpasses himself

Lewis Hamilton proves he's not beaten. He will start in first place for the sprint race this Saturday, just ahead of his rival Verstappen. Behind, it's tight but they are clearly a notch below. New nice surprise from Charles Leclerc in 4th place.

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Rédigé par Par

For this new weekend format, the qualifications take place on Friday, after only one free practice session.

The results of these qualifications will determine the starting grid for Saturday’s sprint race.

There will be a second free practice session on Saturday morning, but without any changes to the settings made since Friday’s qualifications.

This qualifying session is run only on tires with the softest compound (C3).

Q1: Huge pressure at the end of the session to make it to Q2!

All drivers quickly go out to find their marks. Only Hamilton and Verstappen are taking their time.

For his first quick lap, the Englishman is very fast and reassures himself. He manages to match Max Verstappen’s best time in FP1.

But in the process, the Dutchman takes control by setting a very fast 1:26.751, which is 4 tenths better than Hamilton.

Mid-session, the good surprise comes from Giovinazzi who is currently in 7th place. Charles Leclerc goes off track and stays behind his teammate.

While Alonso struggled in FP1, he bounced back quickly by placing his Alpine in 5th place. Ocon reassures himself by making it into Q2, and even overtakes his Spanish teammate.

One minute from the finish line, Russell is in 15th place and in a precarious situation, behind Vettel, Latifi, Schumacher, Stroll, and Mazepin must give their all.

It is worth noting that Ricciardo is picking up some speed by being 7th. However, he is still far from Norris, who is in 3rd place.

Finally, the battle is intense, Russell manages to achieve the feat of setting the 14th fastest time. Giovinazzi in 12th confirms his ease in the timed lap exercise.

Are eliminated from this qualification: Mazepin, Schumacher, Latifi, Räikkönen, and Tsunoda.

Q2: The feat of the three British people

For this second part, it is the Mercedes that lead the way, with Bottas ahead of Hamilton. The Red Bulls follow suit half a lap later. The Austrian team is finding all ways possible to make the situation as uncomfortable as possible for Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton completes a very fast but also very clean lap, improving his Q1 time by more than a tenth.

Max Verstappen, despite an imperfect lap, quickly takes the lead of the session with a tenth of a second advantage.

Giovinazzi, Leclerc, and Sainz are biding their time and go out at different times. The Ferraris are in their rhythm in 7th and 8th place. The Italian from Alfa Romeo is not doing a quick lap and remains at the bottom of the standings.

For the second part of Q2, Gasly, Russell, Alonso, Stroll, and Giovinazzi must find the solution to hope to advance to the next stage.

At the very end of the session all drivers head back out to attack the clock and Lewis Hamilton is setting new best sector times. He improves by six tenths when the situation seemed compromised for him in terms of the pole position. His lap is simply impressive.

Like in Q1, the last seconds of the session are under high tension for many drivers.

After Fernando Alonso dislodges his teammate from tenth place, it’s the turn of the fantastic George Russell to “hit” an unexpected 7th time.

Finally, Lando Norris snatches the 10th best time and definitively buries Alonso, Gasly, Ocon, Giovinazzi, Stroll in Q2.

So it will be three British drivers attacking the clock in Q3 and no French drivers.

Q3: Lewis Hamilton was able to surpass himself, the atmosphere is crazy at Silverstone.

We observe that it is towards the end of the session that the track is truly the fastest. Therefore, for Q3, all drivers take their time to start.

The roles are reversed following Q2 and Hamilton’s magnificent lap. Max Verstappen is surely under pressure and decides to start hostilities. Nevertheless, each one takes their time to prepare their first flying lap as best as possible.

It’s really tight between the two leaders, and it’s Verstappen who cracks first by making a small mistake in understeer at the end of the lap. In this first part of Q3, Lewis Hamilton comes back as the boss and closes a tenth on Max Verstappen. Bottas, Perez, Norris, Ricciardo, Leclerc, Sainz, Vettel, and Russell follow.

He decides to do only one lap. The whole crowd is behind him, the atmosphere is impressive, the English fans are ecstatic.

He is alone on the track, takes the bet to only do one lap and achieves the 7th best time by improving his Q2 time.

The other nine drivers set off one last time against the clock.

Hamilton at the top improves his first split again, he does not give up and seems to be untouchable. His second sector is still improving while Verstappen is still not improving.

However in the final corners, the English driver makes a mistake with a lot of slides and Max Verstappen remains on the lookout, but it will not be enough.

What a feat by Hamilton and what a twist compared to FP1.

Behind the two main contenders in the championship are respectively: Bottas, Leclerc, Perez, Norris, Ricciardo, Russell, Sainz, and Vettel.

The result of the qualifications

Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
1 Hamilton Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport 1.26.134 23
2 Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1.26.209 16
3 Bottas Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport 1.26.328 22
4 Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari 1.26.828 20
5 Perez Red Bull Racing 1.26.844 17
6 Norris McLaren F1 Team 1.26.897 20
7 Ricciardo McLaren F1 Team 1.26.899 22
8 Russell Williams Racing 1.26.971 17
9 Sainz Jr. Scuderia Ferrari 1.27.007 21
10 Vettel Cognizant Aston Martin Racing 1.27.179 15
11 Alonso Alpine F1 Team 1.27.245 12
12 Gasly Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1.27.273 14
13 Ocon Alpine F1 Team 1.27.340 12
14 Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN 1.27.617 15
15 Stroll Cognizant Aston Martin Racing 1.27.665 12
16 Tsunoda Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1.28.043 10
17 Räikkönen Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN 1.28.062 9
18 Latifi Williams Racing 1.28.254 8
19 Schumacher Haas F1 Team 1.28.738 10
20 Mazepin Haas F1 Team 1.29.051 9
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