#BritishGP Qualifying: @LewisHamilton beats @Max33Verstappen to sprint pole. #F1

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to take pole position in qualifying at the British GP for tomorrow’s inaugural Qualifying Sprint Race to decide the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

In the final stage of qualifying, Hamilton lead the pack after the initial flying laps, posting a 1:26.134, with Verstappen – who had dominantly lead the sole earlier opening practice session – trailing and was left unsatisfied with his Honda-powered RB16B racer understeering around Silverstone.

On the last flyers, Hamilton was on course to improve the benchmark with purple sectors one and two, but a massive slide exiting the first part of the final sequence at Club corner costed the Briton, and did not go quicker.

Although Verstappen cut the gap to only 0.075 seconds from his 0.172 after the initial stint, as the Red Bull driver ended up second – as the packed crowd at Silverstone erupted with cheers.

Valtteri Bottas qualified in third place, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc promoted to fourth after the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez had his effort invalidated for exceeding track limits out of Stowe on his last hot-lap.

McLaren’s Lando Norris pipped team-mate Daniel Ricciardo to sixth place.

Williams Racing’s George Russell ran an offset Q3 program after impressively progressing through to the final segment, running by himself with over four minutes left on the clock.

The Briton was cheered all the way around his flying effort with a 1:26.971 to take eighth, and qualified ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel who rounded out the top ten.

Vettel also lost his Q3 time for exceeding track limits at Stowe.

In Q2, the aforementioned Russell improved on his late flyer to jump to seventh place and made the third qualifying stage, knocking out Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso – with the double world champion forced to start 11th on the qualifying sprint grid.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly qualified in 12th and in-front of the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon who was 13th, Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi who ended the session in 14th and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll takes a low 15th.

In the first segment, Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was the quickest of the Q1 eliminatees and will start 16th in the qualifying sprint race ahead of Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen who is 17th and Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi taking 18th.

Uralkali Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin brought up the rear.

All running on Friday evening took place on the C3 red side-walled softer tyres – per the rules of the new Qualifying Sprint Race weekend format – with no need to take the compound from Q2 to start the British Grand Prix on Sunday.

All teams will have a free choice of tyres to start for both the qualifying sprint and the race.

You can see the full Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix 2021 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1072/great-britain/qualifying.html

2021 British GP Qualifying for Qualifying Sprint Race – The Top Three

Qualifying Sprint Race Pole Position – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance, 1:26.134:

“I’ve been missing this for a whole year! You see the energy, I was hopeful with all the great work we’ve done as a team and all the energy from the fans would get us there. We’ve left no stone unturned. I lost the back end in that final corner so my heart was in my mouth as I crossed the line… I’m over the moon. It feels like such a long time since we’ve been anywhere near!”

2nd Place – Max Verstappen, #33, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16B, 1:26.209:

“I think the car itself was handling quite well but we had understeer so I couldn’t attack any corners. It is what it is, we were still quite close. It’s a bit of a weird feeling to be honest, we’ll see tomorrow – I think we have a strong race car.”

3rd Place – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance,1:26.238:

“I think it was a good qualifying based on how fast Red Bull was, to get on ‘pole’ as a team. It’s all to play for [tomorrow].”

 

#BritishGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen quickest ahead of @LandoNorris and @LewisHamilton. #F1

#Formula1 Pirelli #BritishGP 2021 Preview – #F1