Max Verstappen reigned supreme to take F1 British GP pole in tricky conditions, as he led McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Q1:
It was cloudy but the track was dry enough to start on slicks in first part of F1 British GP qualifying in Silverstone. The Ferrari pair along with Haas and Williams’ Logan Sargeant elected to use the intermediate tyre but they quickly switched to the soft compound.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton started off well but he had a spin at Turn 15 where several others had a moment. The Brit had to go around again as light drizzle started to fall. The track limits started to catch out few which included Williams’ Alexander Albon.
Amid light drizzle and hasty running, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen caused the red flag after his car completely switched off with about 3m remaining. The re-start was hectic with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez first to leave which eventually hampered his run.
He was knocked out in 16 with a 1m29.968s as he missed Q2 by 0.019s as he led AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (1m30.025s), Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu (1m30.123s), AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries (1m30.513s) and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m32.378s).
At the front, it was McLaren’s Lando Norris (1m28.917s) on top from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ George Russell, as Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas stopped on track with an issue at the end of the session despite making it into Q2.
Replays showed traffic trouble towards the end of the session as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen jumped the queue after his front wing dramas in the pitlane where he slid onto the wall. He passed Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton which pushed him to move around too, as Leclerc wasn’t happy with Carlos Sainz passing him on track despite orders.
Q2:
The second part in F1 British GP qualifying saw dry run with the sun shining at most part of the circuit. Alfa Romeo’s Bottas didn’t make it as Williams’ Sargeant had multiple lap times deleted along with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll to find themselves behind.
It was hectic to end the sesison again with Red Bull’s Verstappen on top after setting a 1m27.702s lap from the McLaren pair of Oscar Piastri and Norris in the Top 3. The knockout zone had Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg (1m28.896s) in 11th, missing out by 0.014s.
Aston Martin’s Stroll (1m28.935s) was 12th from Alpine’s Esteban Ocon (1m28.956s) with the two having a moment in the dying stages of the session. After a good show, Williams’ Sargeant (1m29.031s) was 14th eventually.
Q3:
The third part in F1 British GP saw Red Bull’s Verstappen put in a solid banker lap on a new set of the tyre with a 1m27.084s lap as he led Mercedes’ Hamilton and McLaren’s Piastri, where the two Ferrari cars of Leclerc and Sainz were fourth and fifth.
The second run changed the order by quite but Verstappen maintained his lead with a 1m26.720s lap to take F1 British GP pole from McLaren pair of Norris (1m26.961s) and Piastri (1m27.092s) in a supreme show from the Woking-based outfit.
The Ferrari pair of Leclerc (1m27.136s) and Sainz (1m27.148s) slotted in fourth and fifth, with Mercedes duo of Russell (1m27.155s) and Hamilton (1m27.211s) in sixth and seventh, with Albon (1m27.530s) eighth, Alonso (1m27.659s) ninth and Gasly (1m27.689s) in 10th.
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UPDATE: The FIA has disqualified Bottas from F1 British GP qualifying after the team couldn’t give enough fuel sample for post-qualifying checks. His teammate Guanyu was let off in alleged impeding case against Ocon in Q1. Also, the stewards fined AlphaTauri for unsafe release of de Vries against Piastri.
Final results: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20British%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Final%20Qualifying%20Classification.pdf
