More than halfway through qualifying, you wouldn’t have bet on the home-standing Briton. But in the end, Lewis Hamilton took the pole…and in a record-breaking manner.
SILVERSTONE, England—August 1st—Just when many thought that Lewis Hamilton couldn’t beat teammate Valtteri Bottas during Saturday’s qualifying for Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, he did just that. The Briton set a track-breaking best time of 1:24:303 to take his 7th pole at this circuit and 91st overall of his illustrious career.
Bottas will start in second, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will complete the front row.
Lewis Hamilton: Valtteri (Bottas) is pushing me right to the limit. He has been pushing me all weekend. It was a real struggle out there. This track is difficult with the wind, and it is like juggling balls while on a moving plate at high speed.
Hamilton had trouble all of Friday’s practice with the MGU-K unit and had to replace it. And in the first two qualifying sessions, he could not match Bottas, who set a track record of 1:25:015 in the second session–just before Hamilton lost control of his car and spun at Luffied, bringing out a red flag with 8:51 left. Track marshals took 10 minutes to clean up all the gravel that Hamilton’s Mercedes spilled onto the track.
But Hamilton regained his composure and broke Bottas’ track record, giving him more confidence to continue his march to his record-tying 7th world driving championship.
While Hamilton was happy with the outcome, he missed not seeing 100,000 home fans in the stands. “Hopefully, back home, they enjoyed it today,” Hamilton mused.
Charles Leclerc was the best of the rest by finishing fourth, while McLaren’s Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr. were fifth and seventh, respectively. Lance Stroll took sixth in the second Racing Point, and the Renault pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon were eighth and ninth, respectively. Sebastian Vettel finished tenth in his Ferrari.
Exiting the first round were both Alfa Romeos of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi, along with the American Haas F1 drivers of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean. Nicolas Latifi, who spun early in the opening session, exited the first round, too. The Alpha Tauri pair of Dani Kvyat and Pierre Gasly, along with George Russell of Williams F1, Racing Point’s Nico Hulkenberg, and (surprisingly) Red Bull’s Alex Albon, all failed to reach the final round.
