Max Verstappen produces stunning lap to claim pole for British Grand Prix with home hero Lewis Hamilton fifth and Lando Norris on the second row
The Dutchman had been struggling with the handling of his Red Bull during practice, but pulled together a perfect lap when it mattered most, as he so often has during his career.
'It was tricky out there with the wind,' explained Verstappen, who yesterday told Mail Sport he wanted to stay with Red Bull 'for ever'. 'Around here with these cars, it's extremely sensitive to it.
'That final lap was good enough but this is a proper track, qualifying when you have to go flat out.
'We're quite quick on the straight which is not easy to manage in the high-speed corners. I'm happy of course with our pole in qualifying, it's a big boost for the team.'
Verstappen will start tomorrow's race ahead of Championship pace-setter Oscar Piastri, who was a tenth of second slower than the four-time world champion.
Piastri's team-mate Lando Norris is one spot further back in third with George Russell completing the second row for Mercedes.
Asked whether he would be able to keep the McLaren pair behind him on race day, Verstappen said: 'Difficult to say but we'll try. We're going to go racing.'
A promising start for the weekend for Ferrari threatens to amount to little more than a false dawn for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton's pace has been impressive around his home circuit, where he has claimed more race victories than any other driver, all weekend, but he struggled during qualifying.
It was a much better session for Oliver Bearman, but the British rookie's day was spoiled by a costly error in final practice on Friday morning.
Bearman carried too much speed into the pit lane and lost control of his Haas, spinning off the track and into the barrier, losing his front wing in the process.
With the incident occuring under red flag conditions following an earlier spin from Gabriel Bortoleto, the stewards came down hard on Bearman, slapping him with a 10-place grid penalty for tomorrow's race.
As a result Bearman, who posted the eighth-quickest qualifying time, will start his first home race in Formula One way down in 18th.
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