Three English drivers in the top three positions: in the history of Silverstone it had only happened in 1968. George Russell took a sensational pole position with a time of 1’25″819, a new track record for ground effect single-seaters (the W15 was eight tenths faster than last year): the Briton took the third pole position start of his career (the last was in Canada), beating his teammate Lewis Hamilton by 171 thousandths. The seven-time world champion had been buzzing about the possibility of grabbing his 105th pole, but his crafty teammate, fresh from winning in Austria, was a sniper and left him no chance.
Russell and Hamilton benefit from a new front suspension that has solved the problems of the W15: that cover that we saw appearing on the upper part of the body does not serve to hide an air intake for cooling the passenger compartment, but a new third element that has allowed finer adjustments, such as to be able to lower the black-silver arrow and draw the load that has always been lacking.
The initial rain perhaps helped Mercedes with a grip that changed lap after lap, but even in this situation the one who was missing was Lando Norris, third at 211 thousandths. The Englishman with the McLaren that today is the most competitive car, aborted the last run in Q3, and was unable to challenge Russell and Hamilton. The same goes for Oscar Piastri who came out of the pits late and was forced to “argue” with Carlos Sainz on the decisive lap, so the Australian settled for fifth place.
Max Verstappen slipped between the two MCL38s. The world champion broke a floor bulkhead in Q2 and had to deal with a loss of pressure that the team estimated at almost three tenths. The Dutchman, therefore, could have been in contention for the front row, but tomorrow he will also have to deal with Red Bull.
Ferrari is the big disappointment of the weekend: Carlos Sainz is seventh, while Charles Leclerc fails to make the cut in Q2 and even finishes 11th. The Scuderia rejected the latest evolution of the SF-24, abandoning the package brought to Spain to return to the Imola version, in the knowledge that the red car would have suffered less from bouncing on a challenging track like Silverstone.
The sad thing is that Nico Hulkenberg with the new Haas that debuted with the German in Great Britain was immediately ahead of the reds: the VF-24 is developed in the Cavallino tunnel. The American team manages to correlate the data between the track and the simulation systems, while the official team has lost its way. Incredible, but true…
Sainz could have done better in Q3, but the Spaniard made a mistake in turn 4 that cost him dearly in the economy of the grid. Aston Martin is on the rise with Lance Stroll eighth once again ahead of Fernando Alonso only tenth. The two drivers of the “green” are under investigation: Lance entered the track when the red light was on, while Fernando put a wheel over the fast line in the pit lane. The Canadian could pay with three places on the grid: we’ll see…
Alexander Albon with Williams slipped between the two Aston Martins for a very positive ninth position. But Logan Sargeant is also happy with 12th: the American gets one of his best performances with the W46, finding some confidence in a very difficult season for him. Racing Bulls is having another difficult weekend after Austria: Yiki Tsunoda had to settle for a disappointing 13th place, while Daniel Ricciardo did much worse with the other car from Faenza: seven tenths are too many from his Japanese teammate. Between the two Racing Bulls is Guanyu Zhou: the Chinese is 14th with Sauber and at least managed to get past the first cut, something Valtteri Bottas failed to do, as he did not get past Q1, which started in the rain, but then the session dried out quickly.
The Finn from Sauber, 16th, managed to get ahead of Kevin Magnussen with Haas, but the Dane saw his best performance cancelled due to a track limit at Copse. The two Alpines were in trouble: Esteban Ocon gained 18th position, while Pierre Gasly was last: the Frenchman was penalized for the complete replacement of the power unit, so he did not need to look for a time.
Sergio Perez ended up between the two A524s: the Mexican caused the red flag with the Red Bull when he ended up in the sand on slicks. Checo lost the RB20 while he was on the launch lap; he went wide with the tyres still cold and ended up in the escape road which was very wet, and he oversteered into the sand. A mistake that could cost Sergio dearly who is back under observation at the Milton Keynes team…
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