Roundup of FP3 and Qualifying as Max Verstappen claimed pole position for 2023 British GP.
Verstappen finished eighth in a rain-affected FP3 but survived a tricky but entertaining Qualifying session to claim pole position at Red Bull’s second home race – with the team based in Milton Keynes despite being registered as an Austrian entry.
Lando Norris snatched a shock front row start in second place in front of his home crowd ahead of teammate, Oscar Piastri, who will line up third ahead of both Ferrari and Mercedes drivers in a shock result for the rookie Australian.
Now, here is a full roundup of all the action across FP3 and Qualifying at Silverstone.
FP3
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was first out on track ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris who was forced to stop at pit exit, with a mechanic crossing the pit exit line to retrieve a loose part connected to the exhaust.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen however set the early pace with 1m 28.836 on the medium tyre ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
Mercedes’ George Russell then Lewis Hamilton however displaced the Ferrari pair in the ninth minute, as Verstappen lowered the benchmark time two minutes later to 1m 28.266.
Sainz however responded on the soft tyres to go top with 1m 27.964 less than a minute later but Hamilton found 0.016 seconds in the 17th minute to go fastest, but Leclerc responded with 1m 27.419 a minute later to set the benchmark time which proved unbeaten for rest of session.
Rain however arrived in the 25th minute with Alex Albon, Alono and Pierre Gasly amongst the last runners to get a Qualifying simulation time in on the soft tyres, which put them second, third and fourth fastest at the checkered flag behind Charles Leclerc.
Eight drivers didn’t set their quickest lap times on soft tyres as Verstappen, Norris, Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg all set their fastest laps on the medium tyre, whilst Oscar Piastri and Valtteri Bottas’ fastest laps were set on the hard tyre.
Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou meanwhile didn’t set a lap time due to a power unit issue concerning his MGU-K component.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1m 27.419 |
| 2 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.173 |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.365 |
| 4 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.474 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.529 |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.545 |
| 7 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 0.732 |
| 8 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.847 |
| 9 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.865 |
| 10 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.918 |
| 11 | Nyck De Vries | AlphaTauri | + 1.085 |
| 12 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 1.144 |
| 13 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.201 |
| 14 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 1.485 |
| 15 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 1.788 |
| 16 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.814 |
| 17 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 2.018 |
| 18 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 2.167 |
| 19 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 6.171 |
| 20 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | No Time |
Qualifying
Q1
Russell and Hamilton were straight out on track as everyone but five drivers ventured out on the soft tyre, leaving the quintet on intermediate tyres to pit at the end of their outlap for soft tyres.
Russell proceeded to set the benchmark time of 1m 35.257 in the fourth minute as Hamilton spun at Stowe and once everyone set their first lap time, Hamilton found himself plum last and in the elimination zone behind Sainz, Norris, Albon and Piastri.
Times however began to tumble as Ocon, Verstappen, Alonso and Russell all exchanged fastest laps whilst several drivers fought to avoid flirting with the drop until the red flag came out with 3 minutes 11 seconds left, due to Magnussen suffering a loss of power in his Haas just before the pit entry.
The bottom five at that specific point compromised of; Magnussen, Zhou, Sargeant, Bottas and Albon, as Albon saw his lap time of 1m 31.999 deleted after he exceeded track limits amidst light rain which swept across the circuit.
During the stoppage, Verstappen required a front wing change after he clipped the pit wall as he exited his pit garage to go and line up at the pit exit prior to the restart.
Q1 resumed 10 minutes later with Perez first back out ahead of the Williams duo as several drivers eagerly ventured back out for final runs, as track conditions evolved and ramped up in pace.
Once the checkered flag fell, Perez became a shock Q1 elimination as he qualified 16th by virtue of having been first out on track and missed out by just 0.019s, with Tsunoda, Zhou and De Vries also eliminated in positions 17-19 ahead of Magnussen.
Perez’s elimination also meant that he has failed to reach Q3 in the last five races.
Bottas meanwhile stopped on track at Brooklands with a loss of power which ended his Qualifying session, despite having qualified for Q2 which means that he will start 15th on the grid.
Norris meanwhile topped Q1 with 1m 28.917 ahead of Leclerc and Russell with DRS disabled throughout the session.
Q2
Aston Martin’s Alonso and Stroll were first out on track at the front of a queue of cars desperate to set a banker lap time on the soft tyres, as the clouds began to brighten amidst light drops of rain around the circuit.
Alonso set a benchmark time of 1m 30.660 in the fourth minute but several drivers found improvement, as Norris topped the opening Q2 runs with 1m 29.427 just ahead of Gasly by 0.044s with Verstappen a further 0.034s behind Gasly.
Alonso, Stroll, Albon and Sargeant meanwhile occupied the bottom four alongside an already eliminated Bottas, due to the Finnish driver stopping at the end of Q1 at Brooklands.
Whilst several drivers pitted, the bottom four all stayed out and improved as Alonso went fastest with 1m 29.052, ahead of Albon in second.
Stroll and Sargeant meanwhile saw their improved lap times deleted for exceeding track limits which demoted them to 13th and 14th respectively, behind Hamilton and Hulkenberg who found themselves 12th and 11th in the ninth minute.
Times however continued to steadily fall as Verstappen posted 1m 28.570 in the tenth minute but Piastri went 0.003s faster, only to be displaced by Hamilton before Norris produced 1m 28.042 to go fastest with three minutes left as Ocon slipped into the elimination zone.
At the checkered flag, Hulkenberg fell 0.0114s short as he qualified 11th ahead of Stroll, Ocon and Sargeant, who will line up in positions 12-14 respectively, ahead of Bottas who didn’t even participate in Q2.
Verstappen meanwhile topped Q2 with 1m 27.702 ahead of Piastri, Norris and Albon, with conditions eventually dry enough for stewards to decide post-session to enable DRS for Q3.
Q3
Like in Q1, Russell and Hamilton were first back out on track ahead of Albon and the rest of the top ten.
Russell set a benchmark time of 1m 27.184 in the fourth minute but almost everyone usurped his effort as Verstappen went onto provisional pole with 1m 27.084, ahead of Hamilton, Piastri, Leclerc, Sainz, Alonso, Albon and Gasly.
Norris meanwhile was the only driver to find himself slower than Russell on his first Q3 flier as he was 0.230s slower than his compatriot and rounded out the top ten ahead of the final runs.
As the checkered flag fell, Verstappen clung onto pole as he posted 1m 26.720 after Norris looked to had snatched pole with 1m 26.961, but the Brit was forced to settle for second ahead of Piastri, Leclerc, Sainz, Russell, Hamilton, Albon, Alonso and Gasly.
Post-session, Bottas was disqualified after stewards couldn’t extract a litre of fuel from his car, meaning that Perez, Tsunoda, Zhou, De Vries and Magnussen were all promoted a spot on the grid with Bottas set to start from 20th on the grid.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 26.720 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.241 |
| 3 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.372 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.416 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.428 |
| 6 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.435 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.491 |
| 8 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.810 |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.939 |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.969 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 1m 28.896 |
| 12 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.039 |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.060 |
| 14 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 0.135 |
| DSQ | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | No Time |
| 16 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1m 29.968 |
| 17 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.057 |
| 18 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 0.155 |
| 19 | Nyck De Vries | AlphaTauri | + 0.545 |
| 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 2.410 |
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