Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen put on a clinic in British Grand Prix qualifying to notch his fifth consecutive pole on the season.
The reigning Formula 1 champion cleared Lando Norris by 0.241 seconds for his seventh pole of the year. Despite initial wet conditions that turned to dry, Verstappen was the class of the session.
“It was quite a crazy qualifying, very hectic and slippery in some places. I had a little ‘incident’ in the pit lane, I understeered as I turned and the car just went straight – I think there was quite a bit of damage,” Verstappen said. “That aside, very happy. Equally, I’m very happy for McLaren, you could see how excited everyone was in that garage, they’ve worked so hard, it’s also great for the British fans too.
“I’m expecting the Ferraris and Mercedes to be more competitive during the race. As for us, we know that we have a good race car and I’m already looking forward to it. I don’t mind if it’s wet tomorrow, in FP3 we were very fast in the wet so I don’t think we need to worry.”
Sporting classic chrome liveries, it was an impressive showing from the McLaren duo of Norris and rookie Oscar Piastri at Silverstone Circuit, who will start second and third, respectively. Norris’ performance gave McLaren their first front row start since 2008.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz followed suit in fourth and fifth, with Mercedes’ George Russell and hometown favorite Lewis Hamilton slotting in sixth and seventh. Hamilton managed to overcome an early spin in qualifying.
Alex Albon wheeled his Williams machine to a respectable eighth on the starting grid after ending FP2 in second place.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10.
Haas F-1 had a mixed bag of results, with Nico Hulkenberg qualifying 11th and Kevin Magnussen in 20th after losing power and bringing out the red flag in Q1.