Four-time world champion Max Verstappen took a surprising pole position for the British Grand Prix, beating both the McLarens to go top at Silverstone.
With Ferrari, in particular Lewis Hamilton, seeming the most likely to challenge Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to pole, it was instead reigning world champion Verstappen who put in a final lap with one minute, 24.892 seconds to grab the top position.
Championship leader Piastri will start on the front row after a small error on his final effort. Norris was the top of the home favourites but only able to go third-quickest for McLaren, with an all-British second row as Geroge Russell was fourth for Mercedes.
Ferrari had threatened to steal McLaren’s glory following a strong start to the Silverstone weekend, but Hamilton could only manage fifth due to a messy final sector on his last flying lap, with his teammate Charles Leclerc will start alongside.
Rookies Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman were next up, but both have penalties for the race, with Antonelli dropping three places following his crash into Verstappen in Austria last week, while Bearman was hit with a ten-place penalty for the second time this season due to a red-flag infringement in FP3.
Fernando Alonso took ninth for Aston Martin but will be pleased to start seventh, alongside the Alpine of Pierre Gasly.
Ferrari looked in trouble towards the end of Q2 but had saved a fresh set of tyres for both drivers, who delivered under the pressure on a single lap, Hamilton just beating Leclerc for the fastest time.
It was not to be for Williams, however, with Carlos Sainz coming home in P11 and Alex Albon in P14, while Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls were knocked out too – although the penalties for Antonelli and Bearman at least promote some further up the grid.
With continuing question marks of Franco Colapinto’s seat at Alpine, the crash in Q1 was awkward and it ended his qualifying prematurely – especially with Gasly’s performance on the other side of the garage.
Having spun off at the final corner, he initially kept the car running and got back on track after minimal contact with the wall, but – as Alpine advisor Flavio Briatore put his head in his hands – the red flag was brought out as Colapinto’s car came to a halt and required rescue from the marshals.
The others to be eliminated in Q1 were Liam Lawson, who ran wide in his Racing Bulls on his final flying lap, while Lance Stroll was inbetween the Saubers of Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg.
So an exciting end to the final segment of qualifying and yet it was a surprise to see Max Verstappen take pole position as predictions were made that the McLarens were the favourite to land a front row and pole. The low downforce on Max’s car helps for straight-line speed and yet Oscar and Lando have a quick race car. Going to be a thrilling British Grand Prix.
British Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:24.892
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:24.995
3 Lando Norris McLaren 1:25.010
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:25.029
5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:25.095
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:25.121
7 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:25.621
8 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:25.785
9 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:25.746
10 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:25.374*
11 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull 1:25.826
12 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 1:25.864
13 Alexander Albon Williams 1:25.889
14 Esteban Ocon Haas 1:25.950
15 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:26.440
16 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber 1:26.446
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:26.504
18 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:25.471**
19 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:26.574
20 Franco Colapinto Alpine 1:27.060
*Three-place grid penalty for collision at the Red Bull Ring
**Ten-place grid penalty for red-flag infringement in FP3
Max Verstappen has clinched pole position at the British Grand Prix, the Red Bull driver storming through with a stunning lap to put himself at the front of the grid ahead of the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
While Piastri had secured provisional pole during the first runs of Q3, the Australian made a mistake on his final effort and could not improve. But Verstappen put his lap together perfectly to go fastest on an effort of 1m 24.892s, putting himself 0.103s clear of Piastri’s McLaren.
The other papaya car of Lando Norris will start from third, the Briton also unable to better his previous time on his last flying lap. George Russell followed for Mercedes in fourth, while Lewis Hamilton wound up in fifth, despite the Ferrari driver being Piastri’s closest challenger in the first runs.
Hamilton’s team mate Charles Leclerc claimed sixth, with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli taking seventh ahead of Ollie Bearman in eighth, though the Haas driver will start near the back of the field thanks to a 10-place grid penalty for a red flag infringement in third practice.
Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin in ninth place, while Pierre Gasly was an impressive 10th at the wheel of the Alpine.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-storms-to-pole-position-at-silverstone-ahead-of-piastri-and.57kjFBsxnQr0hyLaJBVSji
Franco Colapinto crashed out of Q1 of qualifying for the British Grand Prix. Despite this, the Argentine has confirmed that he is “not very concerned” about his future with the team amid rumours of his replacement.
With eight minutes remaining of Q1 at Silverstone, Colapinto suffered a spin, veering off track and into the barriers. Although he initially managed to drive out of the wall, limping back to the pits, he stopped at the exit of Copse corner. As a result, the red flag was waved.
Colapinto discussed the crash with Motorsport.com and other media following his early exit from qualifying.
“Yeah, I just lost the rear in the last corner. I was going on power and I clipped the wall. Yeah, it was a pity, I think. I’m still struggling quite a lot, but there was definitely something we could have done.”
When asked if he was told by the Alpine team to stop rather than get back to the pits, he confirmed, “Yeah, yeah. To stop out of turn one. So, a bit of a pity.
“Not a good quali from my side. We found a lot of things, I think, this weekend to make me feel a bit better with the car, closer to Pierre, but of course, you know, we are still far. We need to do a couple of steps for the next couple of races.”
Colapinto replaced rookie driver Jack Doohan at the French team in May from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. The press release from Alpine at the time stated that he would be in the car for at least the next five races. However, Flavio Briatore later confirmed that Colapinto’s position with the team was open-ended.
Naturally, with the British Grand Prix being his sixth race weekend with the team, Colapinto was quizzed on whether he had any concerns about not being in the car for the Belgian Grand Prix on 25-27 July.
“I’m not very concerned. Of course, there is always talks. I just need to keep working and trying to help the team to improve the car. Today was not ideal. I think we did some good steps, but definitely not what we wanted.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/colapinto-addresses-alpine-exit-speculation-after-british-gp-qualifying-crash/10739550/
Max Verstappen says Red Bull turning around his car setup from Friday to Saturday helped him grab pole position at the British Grand Prix after “understeering to the moon” in practice.
Verstappen reported severe understeer throughout Friday practice, with Red Bull moving towards a lower downforce rear wing for Saturday as it tried to dial in the RB21’s balance.
This allowed Verstappen to be in the mix for pole, and the four-time world champion stunned McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris by delivering a spotless performance on his final Q3 lap, grabbing his fourth pole of the 2025 season.
Verstappen defeated Piastri by 0.103s, with Norris just 0.188s in arrears in an extremely tight qualifying session. Sixth-placed Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was only 0.229s removed from pole, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton also in the mix.
Explaining his turnaround from Friday, Verstappen said: “We looked a bit slow yesterday on the other wing, plus I was just understeering to the moon, so I had to try and reduce that understeer, and it seemed to work.
“It was very difficult to balance and today we definitely improved the understeer and that just allowed me to push a bit more because. I think it just caught us out yesterday, which we didn’t expect to happen, so then you need to work around with the tools that you have and luckily we went into the right direction with it.”
Team principal Christian Horner praised Verstappen for another “wonderful lap,” but also paid tribute to the Milton Keynes team for its role in the turnaround in Red Bull’s fortunes.
“The engineering team has done a great job overnight, they’ve worked hard on the car,” he told Sky.
“We’ve added a bit of performance to the car, and we’ve balanced it. It’s tricky conditions with the gusting weather around here, but all credit to Milton Keynes. Max has delivered as he always does, so good performance.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/max-verstappen-explains-red-bull-recovery-that-led-to-flawless-f1-british-gp-pole-/10739613/
Oscar Piastri admits that McLaren have “been scratching our heads” over a lack of pace as both he and team mate Lando Norris were beaten to pole position for the British Grand Prix by Max Verstappen.
Piastri enters the race at Silverstone this weekend 15 points clear of Norris in the Drivers’ Championship, the McLaren duo having dominated last time out in Austria, and 61 points ahead of Verstappen approaching the halfway point of the season.
But that pace advantage from the Red Bull Ring has been missing so far this weekend in Britain as cooler conditions have allowed Verstappen, as well Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, to close the gap.
“The team has done a great job, we’ve tried a lot of things this weekend, trying to get a bit more pace,” said Piastri post-Qualifying.
“The car has felt mega all weekend but there’s been a few points where we’ve been scratching our heads why we’re not quicker.”
Piastri sat on provisional pole position after the first set of runs in Q3 on Saturday but ultimately failed to improve with his final effort, which allowed Verstappen to snatch top spot by just 0.103s with his last lap.
The Australian admitted that it was hard to find additional time with his second effort having felt the first attempt was near the limit.
“The first lap was mega to be honest,” said Piastri. “I was trying to think how I was going to go faster and I didn’t.
“The last lap was a little bit messy but it’s been tight all weekend. I think the first lap was very good, I don’t know how much the track would have improved but a little bit on the table, we’ll never know if it was enough.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/mclaren-scratching-our-heads-at-lack-of-pace-as-piastri-and-norris-miss-out.59GNii8CfQ0CnrVBXSNuBA
Lewis Hamilton believes an error at Turn 16 cost him a shot at the front row on the Formula 1 grid for Sunday’s British Grand Prix, with the nine-time Silverstone winner instead set to start from fifth.
With an uptick in performance last weekend in Austria, Ferrari looked strong in the early running here; Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc set the pace with impressive laps at the end of Q2.
But Hamilton’s shot at a home grand prix pole was ruined by understeer on his final flying lap, with old rival Max Verstappen instead pipping the McLarens to top spot.
“Pretty decent qualifying. It’s generally been a decent weekend so far, and I think I was definitely feeling more comfortable with the set-up of the car, more comfortable with the balance of the car,” he told Sky Sports.
“I think right up until the last corner I was probably close to second on the grid but had a bit of understeer in Turn 16 and then just ended up losing a tenth and a bit.
“We are making progress. There’s still more to make, but we obviously had the upgrade in the last race. We’re improving our process, the way we go about our weekends. I definitely feel like we’re punching out better results. We’ve got to keep pushing.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/lewis-hamilton-explains-late-mistake-that-cost-shot-at-f1-british-gp-pole/10739634/