Hamilton nabs Silverstone pole in home Grand Prix; Ferrari close with Vettel in P2 & Raikkonen P3
On the third weekend of Formula 1’s unprecedented triple-header of consecutive races, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes rebounded from the extreme disappointment of their double DNF in Austria by grabbing a hard-fought pole at Silverstone in the UK. Once again performing superlatively at the sight of his home Grand Prix, the Britsh ace pulled out just enough for pole when it mattered most late in Q3, pipping Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari by a mere .044 seconds. Vettel’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen was just behind those two title contenders but ahead of the other Merc of Valtteri Bottas. It showed once again that the Ferraris are just about the equal of the Silver Arrows and having the two teams mixed on the top two rows of the grid come race day should make things very interesting on the opening lap.
Further back on the grid Red Bull once again showed that the are definitively the third best team in F1 this year albeit one with a chance to steal race wins when thing go poorly for the elite top two. Such was the case when Max Verstappen drove to a fantastic win at the Red Bull Ring a week ago and young Max was again solid in qualifying, making no mistakes to take P5 on then grid. His teammate Daniel Ricciardo was juts behind him in P5. Look for that dynamic duo to once again pounce if any of the front 4 come together or get off to poor starts off the line come race day.
Top 10 qualifiers for the British GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:26.818 | 1:26.256 | 1:25.892 | |
| 2 | 1:26.585 | 1:26.372 | 1:25.936 | |
| 3 | 1:27.549 | 1:26.483 | 1:25.990 | |
| 4 | 1:27.025 | 1:26.413 | 1:26.217 | |
| 5 | 1:27.309 | 1:27.013 | 1:26.602 | |
| 6 | 1:27.979 | 1:27.369 | 1:27.099 | |
| 7 | 1:28.143 | 1:27.730 | 1:27.244 | |
| 8 | 1:28.086 | 1:27.522 | 1:27.455 | |
| 9 | 1:27.962 | 1:27.790 | 1:27.879 | |
| 10 | 1:28.279 | 1:27.843 | 1:28.194 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 9AM Eastern on ESPN here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out whether Mercedes will regain their lost momentum, Ferrari will extend their lead or Red Bull will keep on sneaking wins!