Hamilton beats Antonelli to British GP sprint pole at Silverstone

Lewis Hamilton delivered a sharply timed statement at Silverstone, taking pole position for Formula 1’s British Grand Prix sprint after edging Mercedes successor Kimi Antonelli by just 0.011s in a tense SQ3 shoot-out.

Hamilton lands the final blow

Antonelli’s effort was strong enough for second, but Hamilton’s final sector of execution proved decisive. The gap was minimal, yet the significance was clear: on a single lap, with the pressure fully loaded, Hamilton found the extra fraction required.

Max Verstappen could not get within three tenths of Hamilton’s benchmark, though the Red Bull driver still did enough to move ahead of Charles Leclerc for third. Leclerc therefore starts fourth, having been narrowly displaced late in the segment.

For wider Silverstone context from earlier in the weekend, Hamilton had already shown pace in practice, as covered in our report on Hamilton setting the British GP Practice pace.

Russell struggles as McLaren lacks peak pace

George Russell endured a difficult SQ3 in the second Mercedes. He lost two tenths through Silverstone’s first sector and ended up fifth, unable to match the sharpness shown by Hamilton or Antonelli when the session reached its decisive phase.

McLaren’s expected performance limitations also became visible. With a less aerodynamically efficient car compared to Mercedes and Ferrari, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified sixth and seventh respectively. Norris had already survived a scare in SQ2, scraping through in 10th after the medium-tyre segment.

Racing Bulls put both cars into SQ3

Racing Bulls continued an impressive run of form by getting both cars into the final sprint qualifying segment. Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad completed the top 10, while Isack Hadjar placed ninth in the second Red Bull.

Behind the SQ3 runners, Alpine showed some improvement after a difficult Austrian weekend, but Pierre Gasly still missed the cut in 11th. Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg followed for Audi, with Franco Colapinto 14th in the second Alpine.

Williams escaped SQ1 with both cars, but only narrowly. Carlos Sainz beat Oliver Bearman by 0.010s for the final transfer spot, leaving both Haas cars eliminated along with the Cadillac and Aston Martin drivers.