Max Verstappen spoils the British party by taking pole at Silverstone
Lando Norris was unable to take pole at his home race (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Verstappen was only fourth after the opening runs in Q3 at a gusty and overcast Silverstone, and complained his Red Bull was difficult to drive.
However, when it mattered most the four-time world champion came from nowhere to take top spot – his first pole since Miami at the beginning of May.
'Simply lovely,' he said over the radio and then added: 'That final lap was good enough. This is a proper track in qualifying where you have to go flat out.
'It is a big boost for the team as well and excited to go racing tomorrow. We are going to go racing, we will do the best we can.'
Norris said: 'Not the top but still a good day. It's going to be fun tomorrow, a good battle. It's going to be an interesting Sunday so I'm looking forward to it.'
How did Max do that? 👏 pic.twitter.com/xXkSjJLq5b
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) July 5, 2025
Norris starts his home race 15 points behind Piastri in the world championship, and he will have to force himself ahead of his team-mate to prevent the Australian from extending his title advantage.
Hamilton is the King of Silverstone, winning a record nine times and finishing on the podium in all of his last 11 appearances here.
He heads into Sunday's British Grand Prix without a top-three finish to his name in Ferrari colours but that could change following a strong performance – out-qualifying Leclerc for just the fourth time this year – although he might feel disappointed not to be nearer the front after heading into the final runs in Q3 in second.
British rookie Ollie Bearman will line up from 18th for his first home race after he was served with a 10-place grid penalty for crashing in the pit-lane.
Bearman was also sanctioned with four penalty points after he entered the pits at 160mph during a red-flag period in the final practice session. The punishment leaves Bearman, who actually qualified an impressive eighth, on just eight points from the first 12 rounds of his career, leaving him only four away from a race ban.
Lewis Hamilton dared to dream of pole (Bradley Collyer/PA)
Q1 was suspended for 10 minutes after Franco Colapinto spun at the final corner. Colapinto hit the kerb sending him sideways and through the gravel and then gently into the wall. The Argentine was able to limp out of the sand trap but the running was red-flagged following repairs to the barriers.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
35 minutes ago
- Spectator
How Britain came to dominate Formula 1
This weekend, Formula One returns to where it all started 75 years ago: Silverstone. But although the first F1 Grand Prix took place in the UK, the sport was initially dominated by Italian cars and Latin drivers, rather than Brits. Dottore Giuseppe Farina, a lawyer turned racing driver, won that first F1 race in front of King George VI. Driving an Alfa Romeo 158, Farina went on the win the championship. For the next seven years, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati swept all before them. It was in this era that the legend of Enzo Ferrari and his team – the only one to participate in every F1 championship since inception – was established. Ferrari, a taciturn workaholic, opined to the Times that 'racing is a great mania to which one must sacrifice everything'. Contemptuous of aerodynamics, he believed that it was engines that won races: 'I don't sell cars; I sell engines. The cars I throw in for free since something has to hold the engines in.' But while Ferrari met with early success, it nearly all came crashing down. Given that in the early days only the rich had cars, it was perhaps not surprising that the sport was largely amateur with a pool of wealthy racing drivers mixed with a sprinkling of working-class mechanics. The wealthy drivers were risk takers. Marquis Alphonso de Portago, a playboy Spanish aristocrat named after his godfather, King Alphonso XIII, was typical of the breed. At the age of 17, he won a bet flying his plane under London's Tower Bridge and twice jockeyed horses at the Aintree Grand National. But motor racing was his first passion. It was driving the Mille Miglia (a race on public roads) in 1957 that Portago came to his untimely, but not surprising, end. After a scheduled stop where he was photographed being kissed by his mistress, Hollywood actress, Linda Christian, his Ferrari punctured on a straight road between Brescia and Mantua. His car arrowed into spectators, nine of whom died, including five children. Portago was found beneath the car; he had been sliced in half. The impact of the crash was more than physical; because of the tragedy, Maserati dropped out of motor racing; Ferrari continued. However, the consequences were almost fatal to Enzo Ferrari's business. He was prosecuted for manslaughter and condemned by the Catholic Church. Acquittal did not change his unyielding approach to motor sport. A brutal manager, Ferrari – a devout Catholic – was sentimental about his drivers, but only when they were dead. By contrast with Ferrari, Mercedes Benz's team did not survive a tragedy after their post-war foray into motor sport in 1954, despite the great Argentinian driver, Juan Fangio, winning them successive F1 championships in 1954 and 1954. At the Le Mans 24-hour endurance race, Mike Hawthorn, driving a Jaguar, slowed to enter the pits and initiated a sequence of events which saw Pierre Levegh and his Mercedes SLR hurtle into the grandstand. Levegh and more than eighty spectators were killed. Mercedes abandoned the sport posthaste. The exit of Alfa, Maserati and Mercedes meant that, by 1960, only Ferrari of the Italian teams remained in a sport which was now dominated by British manufacturers such as Lotus, Cooper, Aston Martin, Vanwall and BRM. Did British dominance of F1 come only from European teams' exit from the sport? That is only part of the story. The difference between the post-war British, versus the Italian and German motor racing teams, was that they were commercial enterprises whose main business was building cars for the luxury market. For them, with the exception of Ferrari, participation in F1 was a largely a marketing exercise. By contrast, British motor racing was a club sport. It benefited from the post-war existence of aerodromes, like Silverstone, Snetterton and Castle Combe, that could be converted into race circuits. British motor racing teams were small semi-professional outfits which often survived on handouts from oil companies and Dunlop. For them, motor racing was not a business, but a way of life. Unlike Mercedes and Maserati, they could ride out the opprobrium of horrendous accidents. The result is that over 60 per cent of F1 races have been won by cars built in the UK. Britain's dominance of the motorsport is reflected in the nationality of the winning drivers. Some 27.8 per cent of F1 races have been won by British drivers with Germans, our nearest rivals on 16 per cent. Apart from racetracks, World War II produced a plethora of technicians and skilled mechanics. Some were absorbed by the eighty British car companies that emerged after the war. But by the 1960s, this number had been whittled down to a handful. Trade unions led by communists, like British Leyland's 'Red Robbo', incompetent corporate management and the dead hand of socialist government drove British car manufacture into the ground. But unwittingly, failure in the British auto sector showered motor racing with exceptional redundant engineers. When his son John Cooper was discharged from the army in World War II, Cooper's eponymous firm started designing cheap lightweight racing cars using motorbike engines. Bought by enthusiasts such as Sterling Moss, rear-engined racing cars took off. In 1958, a Cooper won its first F1 victory in Argentina with Sterling Moss at the wheel. Although Ferrari and Mike Hawthorn triumphed in the championship that year, the era of front-engined racing cars was closing. In 1959, Australian Jack Brabham won the F1 Championship in a Cooper. The staggeringly beautiful Ferrari 246, that American Phil Hill drove to victory at Monza in 1960 was the last F1 race won by a front-engined car. Enzo Ferrari, who stubbornly believed that the 'horse should pull the cart', hated the idea. But even he succumbed in 1961. Success was immediate. In 1961, Phil Hill became the first American to win an F1 championship driving the 'shark nose' Ferrari 156. But victory was tarnished by the death of Wolfgang von Trips and 17 spectators at Monza. Thereafter F1 technological development was led by a succession of brilliant British engineers, typified by Aston Martins' new head of technology, Adrien Newey, who has won championships at Williams, McLaren and Red Bull. In many respects, the British designers of F1 cars have been the sport's real heroes. It is, after all, difficult to think of a championship driver who has not had the best car. The apogee of British supremacy in Formula 1 came exactly 60 years ago. At Silverstone in 1965, the British Grand Prix was notable for being the first and only F1 race in which the first five drivers came from a single country: Britain. In an age when travel was expensive, the dominance of English teams meant that home grown British driving talent was advantaged. Though the heights of Silverstone 1965 were never matched, Britain has continued to dominate, both teams and drivers. Next year, six of the eleven F1 teams will be wholly based in the UK, with three others partially based here. It is estimated that the value of these F1 franchises now exceeds £20 billion. The global F1 circus was the brainchild of former Essex car dealer Bernie Ecclestone. In 1977, he formed FOCA (Formula One Constructors Association). Max Mosley, the son of the British Nazi, Oswald Mosley, and an amateur racing driver and barrister, became Ecclestone's inseparable henchman. Together, they wrenched control of Formula One away from the Anglophobe president of the FIA (Federation Internationale Automobile), Jean-Marie Balestre, in what became known as the FOCA-FIA wars. With the Concorde Agreement (after the Place de la Concorde in Paris) negotiated by Mosley, Ecclestone won control of F1's commercial rights and consolidated British dominance of F1. Although the champagne image of F1 was briefly revived by Alexander 'Lord' Hesketh and his manager Anthony 'bubbles' Horsley in 1975 after they recruited the playboy driver James Hunt (or Hunt the 'Shunt' as he was nicknamed), the motor sport industry was transforming into a significant industry. Enzo Ferrari had long since pronounced that 'the days of the gentleman driver are over'. By the 1970s, corporate advertising and corporate management began to enter the sport. These were talents that suited a growing entertainment industry. Subsequently, Ecclestone cleverly expanded F1's global reach by persuading wealthy countries to pay-to-play. Innovative digital platforms, particularly in Asia, have helped widen viewership. In China, viewing figures have jumped by 50 per cent since 2019. F1's Drive to Survive Netflix series has scored a notable success by capturing a young female audience. The F1 industry in the UK now employs directly and indirectly 50,000 people, many in high-paying jobs, in over 4,000 businesses. The aura of sex and glamour created by Netflix and the recent released F1 the Movie, surely the best alpha male film since Top Gun, belies motor-racing's seriousness. Look behind the bling image of F1 and one will see possibly Britain's most successful manufacturing industry. It is a rare business in which Britain has won global leadership; it should be cherished.
Leader Live
43 minutes ago
- Leader Live
Wimbledon briefing: Saturday recap and order of play on a big day for Britain
Attention turns back to British hopes on Sunday, with Sonay Kartal and Cameron Norrie both targeting a quarter-final berth. Here, the PA news agency looks back at Saturdays's action and previews day seven of the Championships. Novak Djokovic brought up a century of Wimbledon wins as he moved smoothly into the fourth round. The 38-year-old eased past fellow Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 6-3 6-0 6-4 on Centre Court. Djokovic is now just five wins behind Wimbledon's only other male centurion, his great rival Roger Federer on 105 match victories. 'Very historic, it sounds very nice,' he said. 'Wimbledon is a favourite tournament, not just for myself but for most players. Any history I make at my favourite tournament, I'm blessed.' Jannik Sinner continued to navigate a serene course through the choppy waters of Wimbledon with another straight-sets win. Pedro Martinez was his latest victim, the Spanish world number 52 – who was carrying a shoulder injury – winning just five games in a 6-1 6-3 6-1 defeat on Centre Court. In reaching the fourth round, the 23-year-old Italian has dropped only 17 games from his three matches. Roger Federer previously held the record for the least games lost in the first three rounds at Wimbledon, 19 in 2004. The last home singles players standing are the British number threes. Sonay Kartal's best grand slam result has already been secured and she will now look to become the first home female player to reach the last eight since Johanna Konta in 2019 – and only the second since 1984 – when she takes on Russian veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Cameron Norrie has been here before and the 2022 semi-finalist faces Chilean qualifier Nicolas Jarry on Court One – where Norrie enjoys an 8-1 record. Carlos Alcaraz has not looked at his imperious best on his way to the last 16. But the defending champion will have to find a higher level on Sunday against the dangerous Russian Andrey Rublev. Rublev has won one of their previous three meetings – on the clay in Madrid last year – and has powered his way through to the fourth round at Wimbledon for the third time. Alcaraz could be in for a tricky evening on Centre Court. Centre Court (from 1.30pm)Sonay Kartal v Anastasia PavlyuchenkovaAryna Sabalenka (1) v Elise Mertens (24)Carlos Alcaraz (2) v Andrey Rublev (14) Court One (from 1pm)Taylor Fritz (5) v Jordan ThompsonCameron Norrie v Nicolas Jarry (Q)Amanda Anisimova (13) v Linda Noskova (30) Cloudy changing to light showers by late morning, with a maximum temperature of 24C, according to the Met Office.
South Wales Argus
an hour ago
- South Wales Argus
Wimbledon briefing: Saturday recap and order of play on a big day for Britain
Attention turns back to British hopes on Sunday, with Sonay Kartal and Cameron Norrie both targeting a quarter-final berth. Here, the PA news agency looks back at Saturdays's action and previews day seven of the Championships. Djokovic's ton Novak Djokovic brought up a big milestone on Centre Court (Mike Egerton/PA) Novak Djokovic brought up a century of Wimbledon wins as he moved smoothly into the fourth round. The 38-year-old eased past fellow Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 6-3 6-0 6-4 on Centre Court. Djokovic is now just five wins behind Wimbledon's only other male centurion, his great rival Roger Federer on 105 match victories. 'Very historic, it sounds very nice,' he said. 'Wimbledon is a favourite tournament, not just for myself but for most players. Any history I make at my favourite tournament, I'm blessed.' Sinner sails through Jannik Sinner has barely broken a sweat in SW19 (Mike Egerton/PA) Jannik Sinner continued to navigate a serene course through the choppy waters of Wimbledon with another straight-sets win. Pedro Martinez was his latest victim, the Spanish world number 52 – who was carrying a shoulder injury – winning just five games in a 6-1 6-3 6-1 defeat on Centre Court. In reaching the fourth round, the 23-year-old Italian has dropped only 17 games from his three matches. Roger Federer previously held the record for the least games lost in the first three rounds at Wimbledon, 19 in 2004. Brit watch Sonay Kartal is in high spirits ahead of her first appearance in the last 16 of a grand slam (Mike Egerton/PA) The last home singles players standing are the British number threes. Sonay Kartal's best grand slam result has already been secured and she will now look to become the first home female player to reach the last eight since Johanna Konta in 2019 – and only the second since 1984 – when she takes on Russian veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Cameron Norrie has been here before and the 2022 semi-finalist faces Chilean qualifier Nicolas Jarry on Court One – where Norrie enjoys an 8-1 record. Match of the day Carlos Alcaraz has not been at his best so far (John Walton/PA) Carlos Alcaraz has not looked at his imperious best on his way to the last 16. But the defending champion will have to find a higher level on Sunday against the dangerous Russian Andrey Rublev. Rublev has won one of their previous three meetings – on the clay in Madrid last year – and has powered his way through to the fourth round at Wimbledon for the third time. Alcaraz could be in for a tricky evening on Centre Court. Order of play Centre Court (from 1.30pm) Sonay Kartal v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Aryna Sabalenka (1) v Elise Mertens (24) Carlos Alcaraz (2) v Andrey Rublev (14) Court One (from 1pm) Taylor Fritz (5) v Jordan Thompson Cameron Norrie v Nicolas Jarry (Q) Amanda Anisimova (13) v Linda Noskova (30) Weather Cloudy changing to light showers by late morning, with a maximum temperature of 24C, according to the Met Office.
