Valtteri Bottas took pole for the British Grand Prix, putting in a fine performance in qualifying under great pressure from the challenge of his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was in second place at Silverstone by just six-thousandths of a second. Charles Leclerc was in third for Ferrari but his teammate Sebastian Vettel could manage only sixth. Max Verstappen was in fourth for Red Bull with his teammate Pierre Gasly in fifth.
Bottas had to pull out an exceptional lap to deny Hamilton and delivered with an almost perfect run on his first flying lap in Q3. On the first hot runs in the final third, Hamilton was quickest in the first and third sectors but had a moment of oversteer through Brooklands in the middle sector and Bottas was able to best his teammate by three tenths, with a time of 1min 25.093sec. Ferrari, however, had work to do, with Leclerc behind Verstappen in fourth and Vettel in sixth.
On the second runs, Bottas did not improve and although Hamilton managed to string together three strong sectors, he was still not happy with his final lap despite being denied by the finest of margins. “It just got away from us,” he said. Bottas rightly celebrated besting Hamilton at his home circuit in front of a fiercely partisan crowd; it was a major result for the Finn.
Hamilton led the timesheets in Q1 with Leclerc quickest in Q2. Vettel and Leclerc set their best times in Q2 on the soft tyres, perhaps looking for extra grip off the line in contrast to Hamilton and Bottas, who will start on the medium rubber. Pirelli believe the tyre wear will be such that the teams will have to adopt a two-stop strategy.
Bottas’s 10th career pole position is his first at the British Grand Prix, his fourth this season and it marks a return to form following a strong start the Finn made in the single-lap discipline. He has now out-qualified Hamilton by four poles to three. He will badly want to ensure that he converts this one into a win, however. In both China and Spain, he was beaten off the line by championship-leading Hamilton, who went on to take victory on both occasions.
Bottas clearly wants to prevent Hamilton from romping away with it. The Finn took a dominant win in Australia and was similarly strong in Baku for his second victory; now he needs to back those results up by taking the flag here to keep the pressure on Hamilton in his challenge for the title.
Mercedes have secured seven of the 10 poles this season and an exceptional seven front-row lockouts. They have six one-two finishes, too, and a seventh looks to be strongly on the cards.
Hamilton has four wins from the last five races, which has ensured he has a dominant position in the world championship. The British driver leads Bottas by 31 points, with Vettel 74 points back. Mercedes have won all but one race this season, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen taking the flag at the last round in Austria.
Mercedes had expected their car to struggle somewhat in the high temperatures in Austria but the windy flatlands of Silverstone could not have been more accommodating on Saturday, with overcast skies and a chill in the air. The circuit’s fast corners play to their strengths and they had looked to be on good form from early in the weekend at a track where they have only been beaten once in the turbo-hybrid era. Bottas and Hamilton led the second practice session but Leclerc and Vettel were on top on Saturday morning.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was once again very strong with eighth place. Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hülkenberg were in seventh and 10th for Renault, with Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon in ninth.
Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Räikkönen were in 11th and 12th, with the second McLaren of Carlos Sainz in 13th. Romain Grosjean was in 14th for Haas and Sergio Pérez was in 15th for Racing Point.
Kevin Magnussen finished in 16th for Haas, in front of the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat. Lance Stroll once again went out in Q1, finishing in 18th for Racing Point. George Russell and Robert Kubica were in 19th and 20th for Williams.