Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari): Totally surprised by sprint pole at Silverstone!

Lewis Hamilton is the fastest man at Silverstone – at least in the Sprint Qualifying session late on Friday afternoon! This means the Ferrari driver will start his home Sprint from pole position on Saturday morning.

The Briton was unbeatable throughout the sessions, topping all three mini-qualifying sessions and confirming his strong performance from the first (and only) free practice session on Friday morning! Yet team principal Fred Vasseur had played down the Ferrari’s performance after practice.

Alongside Hamilton on the front row, championship leader Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) will start from second place. An Italian show at Silverstone! Just eleven thousandths of a second separate Hamilton and Antonelli. Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing), who fought his way up the field impressively, starts third. Leclerc is fourth, Russell fifth (see below for the full list).

Hamilton is absolutely overcome with emotion!

Lewis Hamilton: “I love this place, I love these fans. I can’t even put into words what a huge dream it is, even today, to be preparing for this race, lap after lap, with that flow you get here on the track. Especially when you’ve got the right team behind you. The car felt absolutely brilliant – thanks to everyone. Everyone gave it their all and worked hard every weekend, giving everything they had. I was quick throughout the session, but in the end it was a close call. The team absolutely deserve this.”

Hamilton: “We’re ahead of Mercedes. They and Red Bull have so much power. They’ve worked so well throughout the year. But we’ve made up for it and kept the pressure on. We wouldn’t have believed we’d be fighting for the front row when we came to Silverstone. We really didn’t. It’s a brilliant surprise.”

Hamilton: “We should have a good race. I can’t even remember when I last started from the front row here. It won’t be easy with the lads behind me who have so much extra power.”

Here’s how the Sprint Qualifying went at Silverstone:

In SQ1, Hamilton was fastest with a time of 1:29.273. The two Aston Martins were eliminated in last place (Fernando Alonso 21st), followed by the Cadillacs in 19th (Sergio Perez) and 20th (Valtteri Bottas). Both Haas cars also narrowly missed out. The Williams drivers, Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, managed to improve slightly on their final attempt, meaning that, alongside Esteban Ocon, Oliver Bearman also failed to make it through to the second session.

Between sessions, marshals collected a part that had fallen off Lando Norris’s car from the track. This may explain why he was a good six-tenths of a second behind his team-mate Oscar Piastri. In SQ2, Norris again finished well behind Piastri, only just managing to edge ahead of Pierre Gasly.

Towards the end of the second session, the teams were once again eliminated in pairs – though this time the order wasn’t quite as predictable. Gasly narrowly missed out on progression, followed by Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg (13th) in the Audi, Alpine team-mate Franco Colapinto, and in 15th and 16th places the Williams cars of Sainz and Albon. This meant: Alongside the usual suspects, the Racing Bulls also made it through to SQ3, confirming their good form from FP1. Liam Lawson even set the third-fastest time in SQ2. The fastest in SQ2 was Lewis Hamilton, even though he didn’t even get through the final corners cleanly!

Meanwhile, McLaren CEO Zak Brown announced that Lando Norris would be out late because the part that had come loose needed replacing. In SQ3, Norris was actually just a touch faster than Piastri, securing fifth on the grid. And in SQ3 too, Lewis Hamilton showed why Silverstone is his absolute favourite circuit: the Briton set the fastest time and secured sprint pole for his home sprint over just over 100 kilometres!