Month: July 2026

Kimi Antonelli achieves his sixth victory of the season with a great drive at Spa-Francorchamps. The Mercedes driver beat Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen to score 50 points over his teammate and rival George Russell at the Belgian Grand Prix.

As the five red lights went out, it was actually Verstappen who made a solid getaway on the grid and he took the lead on Antonelli on the opening lap at Eau Rouge, but he was unable to stay ahead of the Mercedes driver and quickly gave up the lead on the Kemmel straight.

While Antonelli went to the front, there was heartbreak for his teammate who fell behind both Ferraris and made contact with Lewis Hamilton, spinning George Russell into the gravel and bringing his race to an end. This non-finish will be an important factor in terms of the championship.

Kimi resisted the pressure of a safety car restart as well as a late challenge from Charles after retaking the lead to take the chequered flag by 1.9 seconds, securing his sixth race win of the 2026 season and first since the Monaco Grand Prix.

Leclerc missed out on claiming consecutive victories following his Silverstone success but confidently held onto second position ahead of Verstappen, who crossed the finishing line ahead of Hamilton – who had to serve a five-second time penalty for the collision with Russell and will also be investigated after the race for an unsafe pitstop release – and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

The top five were followed by Isack Hadjar, the Red Bull driver charging from the back of the grid to P6, with Lando Norris similarly improving from P13 to P7. Gabriel Bortoleto scored for Audi in eighth, while Arvid Lindblad and Franco Colapinto rounded out the top ten.

Just two laps after Antonelli had made his switch to the hard tyre, a virtual safety car was called on lap 20 to clear debris at Blanchimont, which offered a wide enough window for Ferrari to pit both cars. Leclerc, who had been behind both Antonelli and Verstappen, used this opportunity to switch to the hard tyre and moved out ahead for the lead.

The Ferrari driver was able to build a lead gap once he had cleared the off-strategy Lando Norris, who was yet to pit after starting on the hard tyre, as Antonelli also needed a few laps to clear the McLaren.

There was about three seconds between them once Norris was cleared, but Antonelli demonstrated the strong pace and closed in on the Ferrari, helped when Leclerc stuck by Valtteri Bottas through Turn 15. Antonelli broke past at Turn 5 on the following lap after chasing the Ferrari up the hill.

Leclerc stayed with Antonelli for a few laps of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, just about holding on in overtake range, but had been unable to seek an opportunity to return to the lead. Instead, Antonelli maintained enough speed in hand to open the gap beyond the one-second bap needed to avoid a potential Leclerc fightback.

Antonelli continued to manage his lead, ultimately finishing 1.9 seconds ahead of Leclerc to extend his championship lead as Russell unable to score following his first-lap contact with Hamilton’s Ferrari.

Russell had been battling Leclerc through the first couple of corners. Misfortune struck when he ran out of battery deployment half-way along the Kemmel Straight on the opening lap, which led to the Mercedes driver being swamped by the cars around him on the entry to Les Combes. He was side-by-side with Hamilton – the Ferrari driver’s snap of oversteer led to contact between the two, pitching Russell into the gravel.

Verstappen finished third, despite a somewhat distant to the leading pair after being passed by Leclerc during the VSC pitstops. The four-time champion had put pressure on Antonelli in the opening laps, but fell back as Leclerc began to find pace ahead of the pit phase.

Hamilton took fourth, despite serving a five-second penalty for the contact with Russell. Another potential penalty could be a threat following an unsafe release. The seven-time champion had the green signal from his pit gantry post-stop, and had not seen a mechanic attempting to make a last-minute front wing adjustment.

Lewis passed Oscar to reach fourth, but the McLaren had been able to hang onto the Ferrari’s tail in the event of a penalty. Piastri had suffered contact earlier in the race with Leclerc, causing minor damage to his car which hurt his race pace.

Isack Hadjar worked his way up to sixth after using the early safety car to conduct his mandatory tyre change, later using the VSC to pick up a lightly used set of hard tyres in the middle of the race. This helped the Red Bull driver avoid a late fightback from Norris, whose alternate strategy was undone by a very slow pit stop. A slow left-rear wheel change put the defending champion behind Gabriel Bortoleto on-track, but he soon passed the Audi for seventh.

Bortoleto finished eighth ahead of Arvid Lindblad, who at one point was investigated for potential contact with teammate Liam Lawson, while Franco Colapinto pulled off a two-for-one move on Pierre Gasly and Lawson along the Kemmel Straight to take the final championship point.

So congratulations to Kimi Antonelli with victory number six in this season. With a non-finish for George Russell, there is now a fifty points gap between the Silver Arrows drivers. The Hungarian Grand Prix is next before the summer break.

Belgian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:24:42.479
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +1.952s
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford +11.586s
4 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +17.245s
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes +18.988s
6 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls-Ford +23.307s
7 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes +24.014s
8 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +49.140s
9 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford +50.406s
10 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes +76.037s
11 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes +76.991s
12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford +77.523s
13 Nico Hulkenberg Audi +78.348s
14 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari +94.465s
15 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes +104.684s
16 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes +105.856s
17 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari +110.925s
18 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari +1 lap
19 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda +2 laps
Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda DNF
Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari DNF
George Russell Mercedes DNF

Kimi Antonelli achieved his sixth Formula 1 pole position of the season with the quickest lap at Spa-Francorchamps, edging out Max Verstappen by 0.317 seconds.

The Mercedes driver continued the Silver Arrows’ lock-out of pole positions despite having to chase Verstappen’s second lap, as the four time champion made use of a “tow and a half” from Isack Hadjar – following a series of grid penalties for power unit changes – to briefly move to the top.

Antonelli then pushed to gain three tenths over Verstappen’s lap to set a time of one minute, 44.361 seconds, which none of the remaining drivers were able to get close to across their final laps. Thus, the championship leader booked his top spot alongside Verstappen on the front row, who praised the efforts of Red Bull to use Hadjar for slipstreaming purposes.

Largely against the run of play, Lando Norris had set the quickest time of the first runs after finding 0.039 seconds on Antonelli’s opening effort, while Charles Leclerc also put himself into the contention with a lap within the same hundredth of the cars ahead.

A red flag emerged between runs to clear gravel which emerged on-track at Stavelot, producing a slightly extended gap between the first and second runs of Q3.

Both Antonelli and Verstappen moved ahead of Norris on their final laps, but the McLaren driver’s opening Q3 effort remained good enough for third. The McLaren driver later aborting his second lap after running across the gravel at Turn 13. To his relief, he managed to avoid the wall-clipping fate of Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton in similar incidents at that corner in practice.

Norris, however, takes a 10-place grid penalty for the Belgian Grand Prix and will start P13 on the grid when accounting for other penalties. George Russell thus moves up to third after finishing fourth in the session, alongside Leclerc on the second row.

Hamilton qualified sixth and will move up to fifth alongside Oscar Piastri, who improved late to move ahead of an impressive Arvid Lindblad. The Racing Bulls driver will start seventh, alongside Gabriel Bortoleto. Hadjar did not get a qualifying time in, knowing that he will start the race from the last row of the grid.

Liam Lawson improved on his second run of Q2, but just fell four-hundredths short of overturning Bortoleto and could not join his teammate Lindblad in the top ten. Lawson, not running the team’s updated car this weekend as only one set of parts was available, ended up half a second off.

Both Alpines qualified P12 and P13, Gasly from Franco Colapinto, as the latter found time on his last lap to move ahead of Nico Hulkenberg – whose car stopped on track during his in-lap with a hydraulic leak to produce a delay to Q3. Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman had just 0.002 seconds between them as they completed the Q2 drop zone.

Alex Albon was knocked out at the climax of Q1, as both Alpine drivers improved on their final laps. Colapinto had been in the drop zone after the opening runs, but he pulled himself out over Albon’s expense.

The Williams driver was just 0.007 seconds off Bearman at the end of the first stage, while the other Haas driver – Esteban Ocon – struggled to make use of a slipstream from the cars ahead and fell out in P18.

Valtteri Bottas was just 0.022 seconds behind Ocon and led the finishing line for Cadillac, moving Sergio Perez in their second runs. Perez had been a full two seconds clear of Fernando Alonso, the fastest of the Aston Martins, while Lance Stroll propped up the qualifying order.

Alonso will start at the back regardless, after taking a series of power unit changes for this weekend.

The run up to the Les Combes corner on the opening lap of the Belgian Grand Prix is going to be fascinating thanks to the slipstream effect. So expect Kimi Antonelli versus Max Verstappen to lead. Bring on the race!

Belgian Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:44.361
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:44.678
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:44.869
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:44.893
5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:44.895
6 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:45.016
7 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:45.143
8 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:45.628
9 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford 1:46.120
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:46.331
11 Franco Colapinto Alpine 1:46.392
12 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:46.671
13 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:44.801*
14 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:46.777
15 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:46.779
16 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:47.120
17 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:47.801
18 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:47.823
19 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:47.971
20 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda 1:50.177
21 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford 2:03.555*
22 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:50.002*
*Ten-place grid penalty for power unit change

Charles Leclerc drove a fantastic race for Ferrari to win the British Grand Prix despite the Silverstone race ending behind the safety car.

The Ferrari driver headed George Russell and Lewis Hamilton to take P1 while championship leader Kimi Antonelli lost second position with late reliability troubles.

Leclerc had snatched the lead away from polesitter Kimi Antonelli at the start, with third-placed starter Hamilton also following his Ferrari teammate through.

While Charles made his only pitstop, Kimi stayed out with a ten-lap tyre-life advantage offset on the Ferrari driver, only pitting on lap 35 of 52. But on lap 41 Antonelli reported “something is broken” on his Mercedes. It emerged Antonelli’s left wheel shield failed, causing handling issues that made him pit twice to fix the issue but saw Kimi drop outside the top ten, losing 18 crucial points in the drivers’ standings.

Antonelli’s misfortunate sealed the first win of the 2026 season for Leclerc, with a comfortable 20-second lead on teammate Lewis Hamilton.

From third on the grid, Hamilton took a five-second time penalty for a false start, but after sitting out his punishment during his pitstop the seven-time world champion easily came out on top of a three-way fight with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and the Mercedes of George Russell.

Verstappen looked set to claim an unlikely podium despite struggling with his Red Bull’s handling, gearbox and power unit deployment, but the four-time champion dramatically spun off the road at Stowe with six laps to go, beaching himself in the gravel.

Verstappen’s off brought out the safety car, which looked like it was going to set up a manic one-lap shoot-out as the majority of the field pitted for soft tyres. It was like a repeat of the Abu Dhabi 2021 with a final lap shootout.

Russell stayed out on mediums, however, giving his track position on old mediums in second, ahead of Hamilton and McLaren’s Lando Norris.

But while race control reported the safety car would come in at the end of the penultimate lap, the Mercedes safety car continued on, with Leclerc heading Russell and Hamilton locked into the podium positions.

Hamilton is still to face the FIA race stewards for a yellow-flag infringement. After a post-race investigation, the stewards decided there was no issue and Lewis keeps his podium finish.

Norris ended up in fourth, benefitting from Verstappen’s and Antonelli’s misfortune after the reigning world champion was struggling with his McLaren, in which he was unable to keep up with the competition on Silverstone’s demanding layout.

Isack Hadjar was fifth for Red Bull, ahead of midfield leaders Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad for the impressive Racing Bulls outfit.

Gabriel Bortoleto finally scored hard-earned points for Audi with eighth, with Alpine duo Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly rounding out the top ten for Alpine.

Antonelli crossed the finish line in P16, seeing his championship lead on teammate Russell reduced to 25 points.

So congratulations to Charles Leclerc in winning at Silverstone. It was anticlimactic end to the British Grand Prix with the leading Ferrari finishing behind the safety car. There was no Abu Dhabi 2021 final lap shootout. Race control denied the opportunity for a thrilling conclusion.

British Grand Prix, race results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:27:11.335
2 George Russell Mercedes +0.427s
3 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.772s
4 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes +1.149s
5 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford +1.598s
6 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford +2.023s
7 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford +2.214s
8 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +2.413s
9 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes +3.229s
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes +3.445s
11 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes +4.014s
12 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes +4.391s
13 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari +5.245s
14 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari +5.512s
15 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari +7.403s
16 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +8.005s
17 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari +8.162s
18 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda +1 lap
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda +1 lap
Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford DNF
Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes DNF
Nico Hulkenberg Audi DNF

After winning the sprint race earlier, championship leader Kimi Antonelli signed off a perfect Saturday at Silverstone with pole position for the British Grand Prix.

The Ferraris could only settle with P2 and P3 with Charles Leclerc taking a front row slot, ahead of his teammate and home favourite Lewis Hamilton.

Antonelli improved on his first Q3 run to secure his fifth pole of the season, while a much-needed improvement for Leclerc to grab P2 and qualify ahead of teammate Hamilton and Russell.

The Silver Arrows had yet to be defeated in Grand Prix qualifying this year, and a surprisingly strong pole lap from Hamilton in sprint qualifying suggested the Mercedes streak could be broken in Silverstone. But after Antonelli passed Hamilton to win the sprint, the points leader further backed with pole.

Russell was second after the first of two Q3 runs but was unable to improve on his second lap, which was over half a second slower than Antonelli. That dropped him to fourth position behind Leclerc and Hamilton, who did improve but only found one tenth compared to his first effort.

Isack Hadjar was fifth in the Red Bull ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, as both teams suffered a significant pace deficit compared to Mercedes and Ferrari. Max Verstappen was only seventh after reporting issues with his power unit deployment, while Oscar Piastri unable to find grip on his way to eighth.

Racing Bulls duo Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson again locked out row five as the best of the midfield runners.

Antonelli also topped Q2 with a time of one minute, 28.493 seconds lap despite going off track on his first effort. The Mercedes driver then went a tenth clear of Leclerc with Hamilton and Russell third and fourth.

The McLarens showed early signs of performance issues with Norris only ninth, while Piastri was in the drop zone after run one, but Oscar managed to find a way through in seventh as he drove around a lack of grip and balance.

Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto missed Q3 to Lawson by just 0.032 seconds, apologising to his team for not extracting more out of the car. Pierre Gasly was P12 on a tricky weekend for Alpine, followed by Nico Hulkenberg.

Oliver Bearman was P14, disappointed by his Haas car that he felt had been outdeveloped by its midfield rivals, while the Williams team continued to struggle with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon qualified P15 and P16.

In Q1 the gusty wind conditions made the start of qualifying challenging, with a 20km/h tailwind into Copse and a corresponding crosswind blowing into the Maggotts-Becketts complex. Franco Colapinto suffered a huge spin there on his final attempt as his rear end snapped, which left the Alpine driver unable to improve on P19.

Russell also had a “weird” scare when he went off into the gravel at Luffield on his first attempt as his car locked up, damaging his front wing. That meant he had to set a lap time in the final minutes of the session to advance, but George did so relatively comfortably.

There were also immediate issues for Audi’s Bortoleto, who reported he could not grab sixth gear on his out-lap and returned to the garage with a suspected gearbox problem, but the team managed to get him back out to qualify for Q2.

Esteban Ocon was not so lucky, the Haas driver again being handed a qualifying defeat by his teammate Oliver Bearman, who narrowly advanced to Q2 at Ocon’s expense.

Colapinto got split by the Cadillac drivers of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, with an off-the-pace Aston Martin team again at the rear end of the grid.

So congratulations to Kimi Antonelli. His confidence is sky high at the moment by being so quick over his rivals and teammate. Let’s see how the race will go at Silverstone on race day.

British Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:28.111
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:28.286
3 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:28.458
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:28.481
5 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford 1:28.746
6 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.877
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:28.893
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:29.032
9 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:29.305
10 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford 1:29.716
11 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:29.461
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes 1:30.063
13 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:30.076
14 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:30.501
15 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:30.623
16 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:31.341
17 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:30.680
18 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:31.227
19 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes 1:31.321
20 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:31.451
21 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda 1:32.863
22 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:33.025

The current Formula 1 championship points leader Kimi Antonelli wins the Silverstone sprint after passing Lewis Hamilton to finish P1 in an action-packed British Grand Prix sprint event.

The Mercedes driver crossed the finishing line 2.7 seconds ahead of the seven-time world champion in a race where Antonelli and Hamilton had proven dominant over the rest of the 22-car field.

McLaren’s Lando Norris completed the podium, but was seven seconds behind the Ferrari driver as two separate front-running groups quickly emerged during the 17-lap sprint.

This was true right from the start as Hamilton and Antonelli dashed clear as the five red lights went out and built a four-second gap across the opening three laps, with a battle behind emerging over third position.

That was a five-way battle between Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc, who all continuously traded positions in the return of yo-yo racing at the high-energy Silverstone.

Drivers were running with different levels of energy deployment through the lap and this led to overtakes at various parts of the Silverstone circuit, whether it be Verstappen’s move on Russell at Abbey, or Leclerc on Piastri at Brooklands.

The duel for third started to slow down come the halfway point and in the end, it was Norris who emerged victorious, but as he locked down his podium, the battle for the lead finally heated up.

That came after Hamilton had built a steady one-second advantage over Antonelli, who closed in come lap eight and made his first attack on the home favourite crowddown into Brooklands.

Hamilton held firm but not for too long, as the Mercedes driver eventually moved by into the lead on Hangar Straight before soon pulled clear from the Ferrari.

It was around this point on lap 10 when the fight behind Norris incresed once more, as Verstappen dropped into sixth behind Russell and Leclerc before a steady final seven laps.

Russell therefore took fourth behind Norris, finished a second behind the McLaren, ahead of fifth-placed Leclerc and Verstappen in sixth, with Piastri taking two points for seventh.

The final points position went to the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson, who moved into the top eight Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar fell out of the points-paying positions at the start. Lawson defended the point from his former teammate late, by squeezing under braking at Stowe.

This all leaves Antonelli with a 43-point championship advantage over second-placed Russell ahead of Sunday’s British Grand Prix, with third-placed Hamilton now four behind.

British Grand Prix, sprint race results:
1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 26:12.129
2 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +2.745s
3 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes +9.783s
4 George Russell Mercedes +10.639s
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +12.620s
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford +16.550s
7 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes +17.551s
8 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford +30.233s
9 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford +30.953s
10 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford +35.110s
11 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes +40.273s
12 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes +41.026s
13 Nico Hulkenberg Audi +41.680s
14 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +42.499s
15 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari +45.784s
16 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari +49.810s
17 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes +50.379s
18 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes +50.757s
19 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari +75.117s
20 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda +91.872s
21 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda +1 lap
22 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari +1 lap

Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton achieved pole position at his home race, Silverstone, fending off his Mercedes successor Kimi Antonelli.

In a single-lap shoot-out on the soft compound, Antonelli set the provisionally quickest time, only for Hamilton to go faster by a tiny margin of 0.011 seconds to take his first sprint pole since last year’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Hamilton’s one minute, 28.376 seconds lap was a full three tenths quicker than Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, with the four-time champion narrowly beating Charles Leclerc to fourth.

Austrian Grand Prix winner George Russell suffered a difficult SQ3 segment, losing two tenths through Silverstone’s first sector on his way to fifth on the grid.

As expected before the British Grand Prix weekend, McLaren struggled for performance compared to Mercedes and Ferrari, with a less aerodynamically efficient car. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri took sixth and seventh respectively.

Isack Hadjar was ninth, while Racing Bulls continued its impressive form by making it into SQ3 with both cars as Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad rounded out the top ten.

Hamilton led the first series of laps from Antonelli in SQ2, which was run on Pirelli’s medium tyres. Last year’s British Grand Prix winner Norris survived a scare when he only just managed to go through in P10.

There was some improvement at Alpine after a tough weekend at the Red Bull Ring, but Pierre Gasly was still knocked out in P11, followed by Audi duo Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg. Franco Colapinto was P14, ahead of the Williams cars of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.

In SQ1, none of the heavy hitters were under significant pressure, although Lando’s effort only left him P10 as Lewis led Charles – foreshadowing what would be a tricky session for the world champion.

At the back of the grid, Williams survived the segment with both cars, as Sainz held off a disappointed Oliver Bearman by 0.010 seconds for the P16 and final position. Both Haas cars were eliminated with Esteban Ocon in P19, followed by both drivers from Cadillac and Aston Martin.

So the home crowd favourite will start the British Grand Prix sprint race in pole position. There’s only 17 laps in the sprint and if Lewis Hamilton can resist the pressure from Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen, then it will be popular result.

British Grand Prix, sprint qualifying results:
1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:28.376
2 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:28.387
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:28.697
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:28.703
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:28.733
6 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.740
7 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.772
8 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford 1:28.835
9 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford 1:28.927
10 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:29.367
11 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes 1:29.482
12 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:29.679
13 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:29.707
14 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes 1:29.983
15 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:30.197
16 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:30.650
17 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:31.083
18 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:31.714
19 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:31.776
20 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:32.020
21 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:32.910
22 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda 1:32.988