Max Verstappen (Red Bull) was the best Friday in Great Britain and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) won Saturday’s free practice by setting the Dutchman’s lap times down on Friday. Mercedes, who was still optimistic before the weekend, but was struggling on Friday, pulled herself together a bit the next day. In the first two practice sessions, home rivals Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had finished outside the top ten, but by Saturday they had already moved up to fifth and ninth.
After free practice, there was some rain during the time trial, but it didn’t cause too much trouble. The breakdown of Kevin Magnussen’s (Haas) car was more than that. Dane stopped Haas on the track, so Q1 was interrupted during the rescue. After the continuation, the fireworks were left for the final three minutes, and everyone had to work hard.
This was less successful for Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), as he couldn’t run long enough on used tyres. For the Mexican driver, the time trial was his downfall: he missed Q3 for the fifth time in a row.
Aside from Perez, Jockey Konoda (Alfa Tauri), Xu Kuan Yew (Alfa Romeo), Nyck de Vries (Alpha Tauri) and Magnussen broke out on the first stage, the strangest scene Verstappen produced. The two-time world champion could not turn his car sufficiently when leaving the garage and ended up crashing into the pit lane wall. This Red Bull’s front wing was hurting, and it needed to be replaced.
From the second quarter, Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Logan Sargeant (Williams) and Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) did not make it to the final stage. The two McLarens were there and worked wonders. The developments of the British stable already worked out admirably at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend, but only then did Lando Norris receive the new elements. However, they were now also in the car of Oscar Piastri, and the Australian driver thanked him for third place. Norris nearly got pole, but Verstappen stole pole from him at the last minute for the race, which starts at 16:00 on Sunday.
Update: Bottas was later disqualified from qualifying for not having the correct amount of fuel in his car. The Finn thus lost his 15th starting position and can only start the British Grand Prix from the back of the field on Sunday.
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Cover photo: Max Verstappen in the pit lane at Silverstone (Photo: AFP/Pool/Christian Bruna)
