In the rain the fastest was Carlos Sainz, who took his first pole position in F1 and with Ferrari. Photo Ben Stansall / AFP
In the rain, Carlos Sainz gave the big surprise by making his first pole position in Formula 1 and the first for a Spaniard after that of Fernando Alonso in 2012, ten years ago. In the British Grand Prix, the Ferrari of the Madrid driver finished ahead of Max Verstappen, who seemed destined to be the poleman, and Charles Leclerc, who will share the second row with Checo Pérez. Lewis Hamilton, eight-time winner at Silverstone, confirmed Mercedes’ improvements and finished fifth.
Lined up in single file, the drivers fastened their intermediate tires and did not take the time to get off and roll in Q1 of qualifying. With an important wind that made more moves on the track – including the seven times English champion -, the first to set the time was Nicholas Latifi (Williams), although very far – five seconds – from Charles Leclerc, who nailed the time trial in 1: 47.521 with Ferrari, the best of the first at the start, also of team mate Sainz, who finished far away, with more than two seconds behind.
However, it was missing that Max Verstappen had come out to make his fast lap and with a record in the last sector he culminated with a time of 1: 45.743, which Leclerc then lost by almost three seconds (1: 43.028). But, once again, the Dutch got rid of that time (1: 42.814), which the Monegasque then improved by 685 thousandths.
The battle was declared and only time could tell who would hold pole at Silverstone: the pole accumulator this year (Leclerc did 6 in 9 tests) or the reigning champion. Or if, perhaps, there would be the possibility of some surprises like George Russell, who for a moment rose to first place, which Verstappen prevented in moments with a time of 1: 40.452 that not even Leclerc could lower (to 0.178).
With that fight in the lead and almost no rain towards the end of the first part of qualifying, it became clear that Verstappen could continue to take advantage of Red Bull (1: 39.129), that Mercedes and Ferrari would give him fight while they could and that the two Aston Martin (Lance Stroll, 20th, and Sebastian Vettel, 18th) and the two Haas (Mick Schumacher, 19th, and Kevin Magnussen, 17th), had been eliminated, along with Alex Albon (Williams). , who was overtaken by Nicholas Latifi (15th) who entered Q2 for the first time this year.
https://twitter.com/F1/status/1543238885685268481?s=20&t=wW1gFudM-oooYtaleoli9A The green rain tires did not go away in the second part of qualifying. Still in the rain, and with a prediction that said she could get worse, Latifi had the pleasure of setting the first qualifying time (1: 45.161), even if very far from qualifying for Q3.
Sergio Pérez was the first to set a decent time of 1: 42.513, soon overtaken by a second by Red Bull teammate Verstappen (1: 41.486); a few minutes later he does it again but with Leclerc, who had set the record of 1: 41.247 and was improved by 592 thousandths from the Dutch (1: 40.655).
While Latifi threatened to sneak into Q1, Hamilton also appeared in the fight of those above, second at 4 tenths.
Far from improving, the track was getting worse and worse, which winks at the Canadian, who from tenth place managed to qualify for Q3 with the best, ousting Alpha Tauri (Pierre Gasly, 11th, and Yuki Tsunoda, 13th), the expert Valtteri Bottas (12th, overtaken by his Alfa Romeo teammate, the Chinese Zhou, for the third consecutive race), Daniel Ricciardo (14th, McLaren) and Esteban Ocon (15th, Alpine). Almost without visibility, the record he had set in time earlier (almost three seconds behind Verstappen) allowed Latifi to sign his best performance in a Formula 1 classification, achieved two years ago.
There, in Q3, it seemed that only a miracle could leave Verstappen without pole and already the most morbid imagined a front row for the Dutchman with Hamilton, as in that GP in which Verstappen ended up in hospital and the Englishman celebrated his historic Eighth win in Britain. So it was.
Ferrari chose to go first, in case the rain drops reappear, despite the track conditions at the time being the worst after the deluge in Q2. Thus, Sainz and Leclerc set the first records (respectively 1: 51.022 and 1: 50.297) and Zhou surprised with the “1” (1: 49.454), the one destined for Verstappen were it not for a lap that he checked in time to being 1s878, while Alonso was the best, with a time of 1: 46.227.
With the cars unable to keep track, Leclerc lowered what the two-time Spanish champion had done (1: 44.844) but failed to beat the Dutchman who, after falling behind by 43 thousandths, set an impressive record of 1: 42.996 on the next lap, which allowed him to be first at 254 thousandths behind Hamilton, who once again showed the trunk of his Mercedes among the best of the day just 27 thousandths away, snatching the front row from Leclerc .
But there was a minute left. Sainz threatened to stay on pole but neither Leclerc nor Verstappen would let him. The Dutchman set a time of 1: 41.055, 243 thousandths better than the Monegasque, but the Spaniard reappeared at full throttle and pure emotion by stopping the clock in 1: 40.983 and conquering his first pole position in F1, the first of a Spaniard after that of Fernando Alonso in 2012.
Verstappen had 72 thousandths and will share the front row, ahead of Leclerc (0.315) and Checo Pérez (0.633), while the third will be all English with Hamilton and Lando Norris. Behind were Alonso, Russell, Zhou and the surprising Latifi.
Source: Clarin
