Silverstone - Qualifying

One of the most anticipated race weekends of the season is upon us. With all the history locked in the tarmac of Silverstone, all drivers were eager to show their best side. That went especially for the three Brits with a chance to win: Lewis Hamilton, the man chasing his eighth home win, as well as George Russel, and Lando Norris, both of whom never had the chance to stand at the top step of the British podium. 

Long before qualifying started, it was known that it would hold little importance for the French driver, Pierre Gasly. The man needed to change his batter ahead of the race, an action which came with a 20-place grid drop. This meant that no matter how he did during qualifying, he would start at the very back. Since he couldn't be moved any further back, his team decided to use to opportunity to change out most components of his engine. All the changes technically totaled up to a 50-place drop. 

The weather conditions were anything but certain so the drivers were eager to get out on track before their competitors. Although there was no rain, the tarmac was still quite wet, prompting the drivers to start on intermediate tires. A few laps down the line, most drivers exchanged them for slick softs. The decision proved to be disastrous for Perez who spun out and lodged his car into gravel. His incident brought out a red flag, with only seven and a half minutes left in the session. Since he required mechanical assistance to get out of his predicament, he wasn't allowed to take part in the rest of qualifying. The situation wasn't too good for the other drivers: once they were allowed back on track, their engineers were quick to inform them about rain coming in before Q1 could run its course. 

The soft tires that the cars sported upon the restart were great for the first few, relatively dry minutes of the session, and quite troubling once the rain began coming down. The tough conditions caused two other drivers, Verstappen and Magussen, to flirt with the gravel. Both were able to get back on track. For a while, there was a real threat of the Championship leader being knocked out in the very first part of qualifying. Everything came down to the last minutes of the session. Bottas, Magnussen, Ocon, Perez, and Gasly made up the elimination zone.

The hectic weather of Q1 cooled down for Q2, a fact which did not mean that the second session lacked excitement. Both Mercedes drivers, who topped the leaderboards earlier that day, struggled at the beginning of the session. The two Brits did manage to significantly improve as the session went on. The big improvements were a general trend of the session as the track greatly evolved as Q2 went on, which led to the very late lap times making all the difference. Ferrari's golden boy, Charles Leclerc, struggled in the qualifying and ended up being knocked out by Stroll. The drivers who joined him in the elimination zone were Sargeant, Tsunoda, Zhou, and Ricciardo.

Q3 saw the McLarens and Mercedes quickly establishing themselves as frontrunners. After the first series of laps, Russel took the provisional pole, lighting hope in the hearts of his fans. Verstappen struggled much more than we are used to seeing. He pushed the car to its absolute limits but didn't manage to get onto the front row, ending the day in 4th. The top three was, fittingly, filled by the Brits of the grid: Norris in third, Hamilton in second, and Russel, who turned his provisional pole into a real one.

Order of the grid:

1. George Russel

2. Lewis Hamilton

3. Lando Norris

4. Max Verstappen 

5. Oscar Piastri

6. Nico Hulkenberg 

7. Carlos Sainz

8. Lance Stroll

9. Alex Albon

10. Fernando Alonso

11. Charles Leclerc

12. Logan Sargeant

13. Yuki Tsunoda

14. Zhou Guanyu

15. Daniel Ricciardo

16. Valtteri Bottas

17. Kevin Magnussen

18. Esteban Ocon

19. Sergio Perez

20. Pierre Gasly