Lando Norris missed out on pole position by 0.241s in favor of Max Verstappen. He will start from second position ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri, who therefore leads the second row of the starting grid at Silverstone.
Meanwhile, Mercedes could not do better than sixth and seventh fastest times. George Russell edged seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton by 0.056s, but the two ended up more than four tenths behind the poleman.
Hamilton revealed he was not surprised by the result from McLaren, who used the Silverstone weekend to introduce the second part of a three-stage package of updates which, according to team principal Andrea Stella, will change almost all the aerodynamic parts of the MCL60.
“I’m not surprised. I mean, if you look at the car, it makes sense. I’m really happy for them. They’ve had such a bad time for a long time, so to be back up there is really, really nice to see.”
When asked to explain why he thought it made sense for McLaren to be so close to Red Bull, Hamilton said the two cars have similar bellies.
“If you put it next to a Red Bull, it looks very, very similar on the bellies. It works. It’s fantastic. Now we have another team in contention, and that’s what we want to see in the sport.”
Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, arrives in Parc Ferme at the end of Qualifying
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Previously, in 2023, the fight for second behind Red Bull had largely been between Aston Martin, Ferrari and Mercedes, with the order changing from race to race.
But McLaren’s emergence, Hamilton added, is now a “wake-up call” for Mercedes as the team’s plight in the ground effect era continues.
“It’s not a blow. It’s just a wake-up call for us. The others have surpassed us and we need to do more.”
Regarding Mercedes’ chances of getting the better of McLaren in today’s race, he continued: “Obviously I’ll try to be optimistic and we’ll do our best. But realistically, I’m not sure. We’ll find out. It will be difficult to overtake two Ferraris and then there are the McLarens. It will be a complicated race.”
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