Red Bull’s Max Verstappen timed his final lap perfectly to seize pole position for Sunday’s British Grand Prix with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri alongside him on the front row.
Piastri’s team-mate Lando Norris qualified third for his home race.
Mercedes’ George Russell took fourth, while Lewis Hamilton, last year’s race winner for a record ninth time, will start fifth in his first home grand prix since making the switch to Ferrari.
His team-mate Charles Leclerc lines up sixth, with the top five split by barely two tenths of a second on an overcast and windy afternoon.
READ MORE
“It was tricky out there with the wind ... it was all shifting around a bit,” said Verstappen after his fourth pole in 12 races but first since Miami in May. “These cars are extremely sensitive to it.
“That final lap was good enough. This is a proper track, in qualifying you have to go flat out. With these corners you have to be really committed and that’s really enjoyable.”
Verstappen is third overall in the driver championship standings, 61 points behind leader Piastri, who sits 15 points ahead of Norris. Verstappen is chasing his third win of the season to make up for his retirement in Austria last weekend.
The Dutch man was also quickest in the first phase of qualifying, ahead of Piastri, but Hamilton went top in the second and looked like he could end a wait for pole dating back to Hungary 2023.
It was not to be, however, with Piastri taking provisional pole after the first flying laps before Verstappen put in a best of one minute 24.892 seconds, 0.103 quicker.
Norris was 0.015 slower than Piastri.
“The first lap was mega, to be honest,” said the Australian. “I was trying to think how I could go quicker and I didn’t. The last lap was a little bit messy but it’s been tight all weekend.”
Norris said it had been an afternoon of small margins. “I think it’s going to be fun tomorrow. I think it’s going to be a good battle between the three of us, or probably more with Lewis, Charles and George,” he added.
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli qualified seventh but has a three-place grid penalty carried over from Austria where he shunted Verstappen out on the opening lap.
That should have raised Oliver Bearman’s Haas up to seventh but the British driver has a 10-place penalty for failing to adhere to red flags waved in final practice.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso will start seventh with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly moving up to eighth and Carlos Sainz ninth for Williams with Antonelli 10th.
Franco Colapinto triggered red flags in the opening stage of qualifying after he careered off track and into the gravel.
Both the Saubers, Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll also failed to progress to P2.
