Lewis Hamilton sent Silverstone wild by securing pole position for Saturday’s sprint race at the British Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver rose brilliantly to the occasion in front of his adoring home crowd to see off Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli by just 0.011 seconds.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will line up from third for Saturday’s 17-lap dash to the chequered flag, one place ahead of Hamilton’s team-mate Charles Leclerlc. George Russell finished a disappointing fifth.
Hamilton insists he is not thinking about winning a record eighth world crown, but his performance here will do little to dampen a growing feeling that he is in the hunt for this year’s title.
“I love this place and I love this crowd,” said Hamilton, 46 points behind Antonelli in the title race.
“We are showing up every weekend with something and everyone has pushed to the max and I am really grateful I got that pole. It was very close to these guys.
“We are ahead of Mercedes and Red Bull and these guys have so much power. But my team just won’t let up and they keep pushing.
“It won’t always be like this. We didn’t expect we would be competing for the front row, but this is an amazing surprise and I am ecstatic. I don’t remember the last time I started on the front row here.”
Russell, 40 points off the title pace, had hoped to carry his winning momentum over from Austria.
But just five days after a victory which breathed fresh life into his stuttering campaign, the title contender was alarmingly out of sorts at a track which usually favours his driving style. He finished 0.357secs back.
The 16,000 fans crammed into the ‘Landostand’ named after the world champion held their breath between Q2 and Q3 as Norris’ mechanics worked frantically on the front end of his McLaren.
Norris had only just scraped into the final phase of qualifying after he finished 10th in Q2. Norris’ car was fit to take part in the concluding running, but the Englishman was off the pace in sixth, a place ahead of Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren.
Haas, Cadillac and Aston Martin all failed to make it out of Q1 to leave Ollie Bearman a disappointing 17th at his home event.
A bleeped-out expletive followed from Bearman’s cockpit upon hearing his day was run. Aston Martin’s £200m headquarters is located across the road, but home advantage did nothing to improve their dreadful campaign, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll due to prop up the grid.
Two-time world champion Alonso finished 3.6s off the leading pace and the best part of a second off the next slowest driver.
Despite high hope for 2026, Williams are another team in the mire and Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon were a disappointing 15th and 16th respectively.
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