Max Verstappen has also secured pole position for the British Grand Prix. The Formula 1 leader, who is clearly in the lead, raced into first place in qualifying on Saturday (July 8th, 2023) in front of more than 100,000 spectators at the Silverstone Circuit.
For the 25-year-old it is the fifth pole in a row, the 27th of his career. To the thunderous cheers of the fans, Britain’s Lando Norris finished second in his McLaren ahead of his Australian team-mate Oscar Piastri. This was followed by the Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and last year’s winner Carlos Sainz as well as the British Mercedes team with George Russell and record world champion Lewis Hamilton.
“I was surprised to see these two guys there”said Verstappen “A great job you did.” Norris was happy about the success in front of his home crowd, but struggled a bit with the missed opportunity to even take first place on the grid. “Max always ruins everything”he said with a big grin.
Perez 16th, Hülkenberg eleventh on the grid
Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Pérez experienced the next serious setback. The Mexican couldn’t get past 16th place, failing in the first knockout round. Placing eleventh in the Haas, Nico Hülkenberg missed the top ten for the race on Sunday (4:00 p.m. CEST/live ticker at sportschau.de).
The Finn Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo-Ferrari), initially in 15th place, was subsequently disqualified because he had too little fuel in the tank.
In the classification, Verstappen is clearly ahead of Pérez (148) with 229 points. Third is Fernando Alonso (131), who made it ninth on the grid in the Aston Martin. Hamilton follows in fourth place (106).