George Russell led a British top-three sweep in this morning’s qualifying at Silverstone, with Lewis Hamilton locking out the front row for Mercedes.
Lando Norris qualified third, and will start on the second row next to reigning Champion Max Verstappen.
Oscar Piastri will start fifth, next to Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg, whose impressive qualifying effort was buoyed by a host of upgrades to the Ferrari-powered machinery.
Carlos Sainz qualified as the fastest Ferrari in seventh and lines up with Lance Stroll on the fourth row, while Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso completed the top ten.
An under-pressure Sergio Perez was eliminated from Q1 and will start from the back of the field after triggering a red flag. Perez was left stranded in the gravel at Copse on his out-lap on soft tyres, having recently switched from intermediates as the track dried.
The track continued to dry during the delay, so lap times tumbled upon resumption until a late shower caught out several late runners, including Kevin Magnussen, who also explored the gravel at Copse, and Esteban Ocon.
Verstappen picked up floor damage in an excursion over the gravel at Copse, which hampered his pace in Q2 and Q3.
Joining Perez, Magnussen, and Ocon in the bottom five were Valtteri Bottas and Pierres Gasly. The latter will start from pitlane after taking new power unit components.
The rain that hampered the closing stages of Q1 quickly passed, and rapid evolution saw times tumble in Q2.
Verstappen and Leclerc flirted with the drop zone ahead of the final flyers, but the Ferrari responded and climbed to seventh, putting the Red Bull into the bottom five.
Verstappen leapt to sixth on his lap, and Leclerc was knocked into the bottom five by Stroll’s late effort.
Leclerc will start 11th, next to Logan Sargeant and ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, and Daniel Ricciardo, the other drivers eliminated.
Russell led Norris and Hamilton after the first Q3 flyers, with only 0.006s separating the top two.
Hamilton went better with a 1m25.990s, which gave him provisional pole, before Russell responded with a 1m25.819s to take the position back.
Norris did not improve on his 1min26.030s on his final run and remained third, ahead of Verstappen, who topped Piastri on his final run for fourth.
Tomorrow’s British Grand Prix starts at 1.00 am and will be shown live on Sky Sport.
Header Image: Mercedes
