British GP: George and Lewis Lock Out the Front Row

The second day of the British Grand Prix began with overnight thunderstorms, rain, wind and a wet track in FP3. The final practice session took place in low temperatures (air: 10°C, track: 16°C) and was contested with Intermediate tyres throughout.

The Team seemed to have found a decent balance for these difficult conditions and George and Lewis finished the session in P1 and P2, but drier conditions were expected for qualifying, so the pace did not allow any direct conclusions to be drawn for qualifying.

Nevertheless, it was an encouraging start to the second day of our home race, which was to get even better shortly afterwards.

Just half an hour before Formula 1 went into qualifying at the Home of British Motor Racing, our Junior Driver Kimi Antonelli scored his first win in a Formula 2 Sprint Race in difficult wet conditions. Kimi put in a masterful performance to finish more than 8 seconds ahead of the runner-up and also set the fastest lap of the race.

Extremely Close Qualifying Ends with Front Row Lock Out

Our duo started the second qualifying segment on the used Soft tyres from Q1, which were already well up to temperature. With every lap completed by the remaining 15 drivers, the lap times continued to tumble on the drying track.

Both drivers put on a new set of Soft tyres for their second run in which they did a fast lap followed by a slow one and another push lap. This meant that George and Lewis made it safely into Q3 in P2 and P5. In total, drivers from seven different teams made it into Q3, seven of the ten cars were Mercedes-powered.

George and Lewis completed the first run on new Soft tyres in Q3 in P1 and P3. They were separated by less than two tenths of a second.

In an incredibly exciting, close battle on the final run, George secured pole position by 0.171 seconds ahead of Lewis in P2. Lando Norris in third ensured there were three Brits and three Mercedes-powered cars in the top three, with the top six within half a second of each other.

After a breathtaking qualifying, the race weekend is now heading towards its climax: the British Grand Prix. The race will start on Sunday at 15:00 local time (16:00 CEST).

Lewis Hamilton

Having three Brits at the front of the grid for the British Grand Prix is incredible. A huge congratulations to George, he did such a great job to take pole position. We didn’t expect to be on the front-row this weekend. This result is therefore huge for us as a team. The car felt fantastic out there and everyone at Brackley and Brixworth deserves this.

It was all about getting the tyre temperatures in the right place today and then sealing the deal with a good lap. I think there was a little time left on the table which George managed to extract. I feel confident in the car for tomorrow’s race. With both myself and George on the front-row, we have an advantage in trying to keep Lando (Norris) behind. Let’s see what we can do.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

That was a great qualifying session for the team and drivers. It's been a while since we've had both cars on the front row, and this is a testament to the hard work and determination from everyone in the team.

In FP3, it felt like we had good pace in the wet. That running was useful as there's still a chance that we'll see more rain tomorrow. We felt we were missing a bit of speed on the Soft tyre yesterday, but the overnight setup work seems to have nudged us in the right direction. The cooler conditions may also have suited our car. Turning a front row in Qualifying into a one-two for tomorrow is our objective. We're under no illusion that with Lando (Norris) and Max (Verstappen) behind us, that will be a difficult task. We've enjoyed great support from the Silverstone crowd so far this weekend and we'll do everything we can to give them something to celebrate tomorrow.