World champion Max Verstappen has secured the pole position in Silverstone. The Red Bull driver prevailed in the last second in front of World Cup leaders Oscar Piatri in the McLaren. Ferrari in particular had hoped for more.
With a time of 1: 24.892 minutes, Verstappen raced on Saturday to starting place one. The world champion had been in third place in the last free training session. The currently World Cup leading Oscar Piatri will start in second place on Sunday (+0,103) in front of its McLaren teammate Lando Norris (+0.118). “It was good qualifying, I’m not entirely unhappy. It was fun”said Norris after the race.
Verstappen had complained about his car in the last few minutes. “The car is too difficult to drive”he said. Despite the slippery route and light initial rain, the driver managed to quickly strengthen himself at the front. The first co-round was the first to finish Verstappen, the second in fourth place to finally reach the finish line. “It was difficult with the wind”said the world champion. “I just tried to get everything together. It’s a great route. It was just fun”he says with a smile on his face after the race.
Frustration at Ferrari
After the first section, Ferrari around Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc fell significantly (11th and 13th). The interruption in the middle of the Q1 also didn’t seem to help the two drivers for the time being. Franco Colapinto had lost control of his vehicle in the last curve and turned. After freed from the gravel bed, the yellow flag was raised. But the risk that parts were on the track was too high, so that an interruption with a red flag followed.
Ferrari came back all the more in the next round. Hamilton and Leclerc secured the first two places. For the Englishman, the chances of his eighth pole position in Silverstone were good.
However, the Italian racing team could not take the chance of a top result. Hamilton drives five on Sunday and Leclerc will start in sixth place. “We didn’t completely do the job”team boss Fred Vasseur at “Sky” admitted. Nevertheless, he looks positively for the race on Sunday: “We have the potential to come back.”
Hülkenberg fails again in the first round
As in Austria, qualifying for Nico Hülkenberg was quickly ended. Both clean drivers failed in the first Ko round. Hülkenberg landed in position 19. “In curve three and four, the wind swept through and caused me problems”said the only German driver at “Sky”.
In the end, Mercedes did not get past McLaren. George Russell landed in fourth place (+0.137) and Kimi Antonelli in position seven (+0,482). There is still a penalty of three starting places for the rookie. Oliver Bearman also has to take a ten-place penalty from position eight (+0.579). So Fernando Alonso moved up two starting places in ninth (+0.729) and Pierre Gasly from position ten (+0,893).