Lewis Hamilton notched up another unique record in Formula 1 history on Friday when he notched the fastest lap in Friday qualifying at the British GP.
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Lewis Hamilton notched up another unique record in Formula 1 history on Friday when he notched the fastest lap in Friday qualifying. That qualifying was being held on Friday for the British Grand Prix is, of course, unique. But with F1 trying out sprint qualifying this weekend for the first time, this was to be expected. Thus, the Friday qualifying was used to set the starting grid for the sprint on Saturday. The sprint race will run for 17 laps with no tyre changes necessary, with teams allowed to run a tyre compound of their choice. And in a result that made a full-capacity Silverstone crowd happy, it was Hamilton who finished Q3 on top.
Qualifying was anything but a breeze, however. The first free practice of the weekend, held ahead of the qualifying, saw Hamilton finish third. Championship leader Max Verstappen was fastest, with McLaren’s Lando Norris second.
Thus, the onus was on Mercedes and Hamilton to pull out something special from their hats. And they managed to do just that in Q2 and Q3.
Verstappen did not look likely to take pole on his final lap as he was slower at sector 2 of the track. He then struggled with understeer in sector 3, but will start the sprint second.
Bottas and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc round off the top 4. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez could have finished fourth but had his lap time deleted for a track limit breach and will start fifth.
McLaren duo Norris and Daniel Ricciardo start sixth and seventh while another local hero George Russell starts eigth in his Williams.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz is ninth and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel rounds off the top ten.
Lewis Hamilton: “I’m over the moon. That first lap was great, the second was looking even better but I just lost the back end in the last corner. So my heart was in my mouth as I came across the line. But I could see the crowd and it was really reminiscent of my first pole here in 2007. I couldn’t have done it without all these guys here so big, big thank you.”
Max Verstappen: “No, but it (the car) just didn’t feel.., it just felt weird. I think the car was quite competitive and I had a lot of grip. But the corners where you had to attack I just didn’t have the front grip. If we can fix the weird feeling we had in qualifying, then I’m sure we can do a good job.”
George Russell: “I think a lot of guys will be playing it a bit easy because they want to get a good starting position for Sunday. But we’re going for it. It’s another race for me and I want to go forward. I want to fight with these guys around me and get the best possible starting position for Sunday.”
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