Hamilton on top ahead of promising sprint race battle

By Iestyn Thomas

Lewis Hamilton took pole for the British Grand Prix Sprint Race to provide further evidence that Ferrari’s upgrades are working in Silverstone.

After Hamilton topped the opening practice session earlier, the British driver ended up on pole in the final part of Sprint Qualifying ahead of current World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 0.011 of a second after a dominant display in Sprint Qualifying.

This came after claims from team principal Fred Vasseur that his team would not be competitive against Mercedes.

With RedBull’s Max Verstappen over three tenths behind the pole lap, with Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc almost three and a half tenths behind in P4.

In the opening sprint qualifying session, the struggles of Aston Martin and Cadillac continued as the two teams were in the bottom four places as Sergio Perez led Valterri Bottas, while Lance Stroll couldn’t out qualify his teammate Fernando Alonso.

It was a disappointing session for Haas’ Esteban Ocon who ended in 18th and he was joined by his British teammate Ollie Bearman who was knocked out in Q1 following improvements in laps by Williams pair Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.

Despite getting out of Sprint Qualifying 1 after their double Q1 elimination last week in Austria, both Williams’ drivers were knocked out in Sprint Qualifying 2 with Sainz getting ahead of Albon for P15.

Two other teams were knocked out in SQ2, with Audi pair Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg lining up in P12 and P13 respectively.

While it wasn’t the greatest of sessions for Alpine as Franco Colopinto finished in P14, while Gasly missed out in P11 and was 0.081 away from knocking out Mclaren’s Lando Norris.

Norris’ qualifying was unravelled by a piece of car damage after running wide at Copse corner in SQ1, before getting his front wing replaced ahead of the final part of qualifying.

With five teams in SQ3, the current World Champion ended up ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri to continue his 100% head to head record in Sprint Qualifying.

The Racing Bulls continued their good form from Austria, with Kiwi Liam Lawson and teenager Arvid Lindbald ending up in P9 and P10.

And after showing some promising pace in the opening two sessions, Isack Hadjar ended up in P8 with teammate Max Verstappen in P3.

Ferrari’s on the pace despite Hamilton’s predictions

Following some overheating struggles in Austria despite upgrades following the British driver’s win in Spain.

Yet on Thursday, Hamilton suggested that Mercedes would lose twice as much time on the straights compared to the race at the RedBull Ring last weekend.

But him and teammate Charles Leclerc were 1-2 in SQ1 and the seven-time World Champion topped SQ2 with the Monegasque driver sitting in third behind Antonelli.

Before Hamilton produced the goods with the final run on the soft tyre, going nearly three tenths quicker than his SQ2 time with a 1:28:376 and claiming pole to the delight of the home crowd.