#BritishGP Qualifying Report: @LewisHamilton storms to 91st career pole. #F1

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton recovered from a red-flag causing spin to claim his 91st-career pole position in qualifying at the British GP.

Hamilton spun his F1 W11 EQ Power+ racer at the exit of Luffield on his initial run on medium rubber in the second segment, scattering gravel across the circuit, which caused Q2 to be suspended.

The reigning World Champion returned on the same compound – which he, Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll will all start on – but the Briton wound up second behind Bottas as Q2 ended.

Hamilton fought back hard with a 1:24.616 in the initial Q3 runs, with Bottas 0.150 seconds behind and Verstappen a further second adrift in third.

Bottas then posted the same identical time as his team-mate, but Hamilton improved to smash the pole lap record with a 1:24.303 to go 0.313 seconds clear of the Finn to clinch his seventh pole at Silverstone.

Verstappen improved to seal third on the grid, but still 1.202 seconds adrift of Hamilton’s British GP Qualifying pole effort.

Leclerc took fourth and will start in-front of McLaren’s Lando Norris and the aforementioned Racing Point of Stroll, who failed to improve on his final Q3 flyer.

The other McLaren of Carlos Sainz qualified seventh and ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel completing the top ten.

Vettel will start on the softs as he did not improve on his best effort in Q3 after switching to the more-durable Pirelli C3 medium rubber.

Leclerc, Stroll and Ricciardo are all currently under investigation from the stewards for a pit-lane incident at the start of the final qualifying stage where the Ferrari was released into the path of Racing Point’s Stroll, which braked hard and Ricciardo squeezed by on the inside.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly missed out on a second successive Q3 appearance as he posted an identical time to Stroll – a 1:26.501 – in the closing stages of the middle segment, but because the Canadian’s best time came from his initial run on the mediums before the red flags, the AlphaTauri driver wound up 11th and eliminated.

Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon was knocked out in Q2 for the second race in a row, taking 12th, which followed his heavy shunt in FP2 and missed most of final practice due to an electrical issue, which required the Milton Keynes based-outfit to fit a new energy store to the Honda-powered RB16.

He set a personal best effort after swapping the mediums for softs for his final hot lap but was not enough to progress into Q3.

Racing Point’s Nico Hulkenberg, who in his return qualifying session – as a replacement for Sergio Perez, qualified 13th and like Albon, could not make any gains after switching the mediums for softer compounds in his last Q2 flyer.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat took 14th, but will start five places back due to a gearbox change, while Williams Racing’s George Russell made another Q2 appearance but currently faces a post-qualifying investigation for failing to slow under waved yellows in the first qualifying stage.

In Q1, Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen wound up 16th as the Dane could not break into the 1:26 barrier with Alfa Romeo Racing duo Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen 17th and 18th respectively.

The second Haas of Romain Grosjean ended up 19th but will start 18th due to the aforementioned penalty for Kvyat, but the Frenchman lost his best Q1 lap, a 1:27.317 for exceeding track limits at the exit of Copse corner.

Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi brought up the rear after spinning his Mercedes-powered FW43 racer on his final flyer and was w hopping 3.402 adrift of Hamilton’s British GP Qualifying benchmark.

Russell came across his team-mate’s incident at the exit of Luffield after Latifi lost the rear of his car as he put on the gas on the long-speed, slow-sweeping right hander and went backwards into the gravel trap on the outside.

Russell reported to his team over the radio that he definitely backed off and slowed down.

The Top Three

Pole Position: Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+

“At the end of the day Valtteri is pushing me right to the limit. It was a real struggle out there, the wind in different parts of the circuit. I had the spin, took some deep breaths and managed to compose myself for Q3. It never gets old, that’s for sure.”

2nd: Valtteri Bottas, #33, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+

“I felt pretty comfortable, but in Q3 I started to drift a bit with the rear end, more than I’d have liked. I think my long run performance has been really good, last year Lewis managed to win from second place…”

3rd: Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16:

“They were just way to fast. We just have to accept that, do the best we can which is P3 for us. I’m going to fight, at least we have a fighting chance starting third!”

You can see the full Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix 2020 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1048/great-britain/qualifying.html

Earlier in FP3 it was Bottas quickest ahead of Mercedes team-mate Hamilton with Verstappen third, Stroll taking fourth and Sainz completing the top five.

Catch up on what happened yesterday in FP2 and FP1 as well as this weekend’s race preview at the following links:

#BritishGP FP2 Report: @lance_stroll quickest as @alex_albon crashes out. #F1

#BritishGP FP1 Report: @Max33Verstappen fastest, #Vettel suffers issue. #F1

#F1 @Pirelli #BritishGP 2020 Preview. @SilverstoneCircuit @F1