Lewis Hamilton survived a late fight from Max Verstappen to seize pole for 2021 British Sprint Qualifying Race.
As Formula One trialled a new race weekend format with one practice session ahead of traditional knockout Qualifying moved to Friday evening, Hamilton recovered from a difficult practice to take pole position ahead of title rival – Verstappen who dominated practice.
Now here is a full roundup of Friday’s action around Silverstone as teams adapted to the new format.
Practice
With this marking the only representative Practice session before Qualifying, the entire field were quickly out on track, although Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll both opted to only do installation laps before pitting unlike the other drivers.
The opening runs saw a mixture of drivers opt for hard or mediums with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton quickly setting the initial pace on mediums with 1m 30.048 recorded just five minutes into the session.
Verstappen however gained top spot 14 minutes later with 1m 28.179 from which he wasn’t displaced as he lowered his benchmark by just over two seconds to an eventual 1m 27.035, once several drivers including himself competed Qualifying simulation on soft tyres.
Lando Norris bounced back from being mugged at last Sunday’s Euro 2020 Final at Wembley, London, as he finished second ahead of Hamilton by just 0.001s with Charles Leclerc, Valtteri Bottas, Carlos Sainz, Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez completing the top eight.
Daniel Ricciardo was ninth quickest and the fastest out of five drivers who set their best lap times on the soft tyre, ahead of; Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda, Fernando Alonso and Stroll with the latter four all finishing outside of the top ten.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 27.035 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.779 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.780 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.793 |
| 5 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | + 0.862 |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.888 |
| 7 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 1.027 |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 1.128 |
| 9 | Daniel Riccardo | McLaren | + 1.176 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.380 |
| 11 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 1.414 |
| 12 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 1.565 |
| 13 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | + 1.792 |
| 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 1.838 |
| 15 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | + 2.185 |
| 16 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 2.192 |
| 17 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 2.192. |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 2.562 |
| 19 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | + 2.773 |
| 20 | George Russell | Williams | + 2.822 |
Qualifying
Q1
Norris set the initial pace out of the early runners with 1m 28.277 until he was displaced by the Red Bull and Mercedes drivers, as Verstappen topped Q1 with 1m 26.751 on soft tyres which was the only compound permitted for entirety of Qualifying.
Down at the other end, Ricciardo, Nicholas Latifi, Stroll, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin found themselves in the drop zone with four minutes left, yet only Ricciardo and Stroll escaped elimination as Yuki Tsunoda qualified 16th ahead of Kimi Raikkonen plus Latifi, Schumacher and Mazepin.
Q2
Verstappen initially led the pace after the opening runs ahead of Hamilton as both Ferrari drivers were last to set their times, having opted to run much later as the elimination zone ahead of the final runs contained Gasly, Russell, Fernando Alonso, Stroll and Antonio Giovinazzi.
Come the checkered flag, Russell was the only driver to escape the drop as he finished seventh quickest with Esteban Ocon falling to 13th, sandwiched in a bottom five of Alonso, Gasly, Giovinazzi and Stroll who occupy 11, 12, 14 and 15th positions for the Sprint Qualifying Race.
Up top, Hamilton finished Q2 as the quickest driver with 1m 26.023 which put him just 0.292s quicker than Verstappen.
Q3
A quiet start to Q3 saw nobody head out in the opening two minutes until Sainz decided to head out with everyone else following suit, as Verstappen decided to seek the tow from Hamilton who had requested not to be released ahead of his title rival.
Hamilton however had the measure of Verstappen after the opening run as he put in a provisional pole time of 1m 26.134, with the latter finding himself 0.172s short but crucially ahead of Bottas as Perez and Norris rounded out the top five as Vettel’s lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits.
Russell meanwhile decided to deliver just one flying lap in the gap as everyone else pitted and posted 1m 26.971, which ultimately left him eighth at the flag.
Hamilton meanwhile clung on for pole despite failing to improve on his final run after a mistake at Vale as Verstappen fell 0.075s short on his final lap, with Bottas, Leclerc and Perez completing the top five.
Norris meanwhile outqualified Ricciardo by 0.002s for sixth as Russell outqualified Sainz and Vettel who complete the top ten.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m 26.134 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.075 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | + 0.194 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.694 |
| 5 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.710 |
| 6 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.763 |
| 7 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 0.765 |
| 8 | George Russell | Williams | + 0.837 |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.873 |
| 10 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 1.045 |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1m 27.245 |
| 12 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 0.028 |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.095 |
| 14 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | + 0.372 |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.420 |
| 16 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1m 28.043 |
| 17 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | + 0.019 |
| 18 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 0.211 |
| 19 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 0.695 |
| 20 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | + 1.008 |
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