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
Kimi Antonelli will start from pole position for the fifth time this season after going quickest in Qualifying for the British Grand Prix, the Italian keeping the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton at bay.
Antonelli had claimed provisional pole ahead of team mate George Russell during the opening runs of Q3 – and while the championship leader improved to record a 1m 28.111s on his final lap, his competitors were not able to better their efforts enough to topple him.
Leclerc did go faster but had to settle for P2, his lap 0.175s adrift of Antonelli’s, while Hamilton will start from third place at his home event. Russell fell back to fourth, and Isack Hadjar led Red Bull’s charge in fifth ahead of Lando Norris on what looked to be a tough day for McLaren.
Max Verstappen was seventh for Red Bull, the Dutchman seeming unhappy at the wheel of his RB22 in the session, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri claimed eighth and the Racing Bulls machines of Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson rounded out the top 10.
View all standings
Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto just missed out on progressing to Q3 by 0.032s, leaving him in P11. Pierre Gasly placed in P12 for Alpine, though the Frenchman faces an investigation after the session for impeding.
The other Audi of Nico Hulkenberg classified in 13th, putting him ahead of Haas’ Ollie Bearman in P14 and the Williams duo of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon on the eighth row in 15th and 16th.
Esteban Ocon – who has been summoned to the stewards for an alleged failure to slow for single yellow flags – exited Q1 in P17 for Haas, ahead of Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas in P18, while Franco Colapinto wound up in 19th for Alpine after experiencing a bumpy run off track at Becketts, his excursion having caused the yellow flags in the aforementioned Ocon incident.
Behind them were the other Cadillac of Sergio Perez in 20th and the Aston Martin pair of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso bringing up the rear in P21 and P22 respectively.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/antonelli-seizes-pole-position-in-british-grand-prix-qualifying-ahead-of-leclerc-and-hamilton.4khQMdOBw2bmuaEWThYEk7
2009 Formula 1 champion Jenson Button has heaped praise on Mercedes race engineer Peter Bonnington for his “calming” influence on Kimi Antonelli after the Italian teenager secured pole position for the British Grand Prix.
Antonelli has been one of the biggest surprises of the 2026 season. In only his second season in the championship, the 19-year-old has secured five consecutive grand prix victories in China, Japan, Miami, Canada and Monaco.
His strong performance has continued at Silverstone this weekend. He won the sprint race after taking the lead from seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and has now secured pole position for the grand prix on Sunday.
According to Button, an important factor in Antonelli’s success is his race engineer. Bonnington, affectionately known as Bono, has previously worked with Michael Schumacher and Hamilton.
“That was amazing, really impressive. It feels like nothing fazes him. That’s what I don’t understand,” Button explained on Sky Sports F1 after qualifying.
“With the management of Toto and Bono, his engineer, it’s helped him grow in the sport.
“Bono is a very calming character. Kimi, at times, this year has got very excited on the radio during a race, but Bono is the calming voice that brings him back down to earth.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/jenson-button-names-key-figure-behind-kimi-antonellis-stunning-mercedes-form/10836315/
Kimi Antonelli has conceded that he was “a bit stressed” ahead of his pole-setting lap in Qualifying at the British Grand Prix, despite going on to secure his fifth P1 Sunday grid slot of the season.
Having claimed provisional pole during the first laps of Q1, Antonelli had to keep his rivals at bay on the final runs – but the Italian appeared concerned when he was sent out on track first, leading him to question Race Engineer Pete Bonnington about why this was.
Despite his worries, the Mercedes driver went even quicker on his decisive effort with a lap of 1m 28.111s, a time that would prove unbeatable to his competitors. His nearest challenger was Charles Leclerc, who will line up in P2 on the grid ahead of Ferrari team mate Lewis Hamilton.
Asked after the session about the lap – and about his concerned radio message ahead of that final run – Antonelli explained: “I was a bit stressed because I never really like going first for the last run.
“But yeah, the last lap was very tidy, I have to be honest. It all came together. It was very tricky with the wind because it was very gusty and unpredictable. But yeah, we built our way through Qualifying, and to bring home pole is very satisfying.”
The 19-year-old was also quizzed on whether the team had made many alterations to the car in the gap between the Sprint and Qualifying.
“No, we didn’t change the car at all,” he answered. “It was just about the differential, brake migration, and driving. We worked around it and managed to find a good setting that helped me to progress through Qualifying.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, Antonelli acknowledged that he remained wary of the threat posed by the Ferrari pair.
“For sure. It’s not going to be easy,” the championship leader admitted. “I’ve got two Ferraris behind me, and for sure they’re going to work together.
“But their pace is good, and ours was strong in the Sprint race. So hopefully we can keep that tomorrow, and hopefully we can do a good race.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/antonelli-explains-why-he-was-a-bit-stressed-on-silverstone-pole-lap-as-he-assesses-race-prospects.4a2UVTMuso3T9bgMk83RQs