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Max Verstappen takes British GP pole as McLaren errors prove costly at Silverstone
Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen celebrates after winning the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, Italy on Sunday, 18 May. AP
SILVERSTONE, England: Formula 1's hot topic is where Max Verstappen might go next season. There was no doubt about where he belonged on the grid as he snatched pole position for the British Grand Prix.
As his title rivals from McLaren made small but costly errors, Verstappen had the pace when it mattered most on Saturday.
He sacrificed grip for speed and went fastest by 0.103 of a second to beat Oscar Piastri's time. Lando Norris was third, .015 further back, as his fans in the new 'Landostand' saw a setback to his chances of a first home win.
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Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, a record nine-time winner of his home race, was also in the fight for pole but had to settle for fifth after a relatively slow end to his lap.
With George Russell fourth for Mercedes, that made three British drivers in the top five, but none on the front row.
Piastri lost time with a slight slide in the last corner on his final run, while Norris clipped a curb on an otherwise strong lap.
Verstappen had seemed pessimistic about having the pace to challenge the McLarens at Silverstone — Ferrari had been closer than Red Bull in practice — and he described his car as 'so difficult' over the radio partway through the session. Even so, he found the pace for pole.
After Verstappen was frustrated with his car in practice, Red Bull tweaked the setup for higher straight-line speed, at the cost of some grip, especially in Silverstone's many high-speed corners. 'It seemed to hold on,' was Verstappen's verdict.
In Sunday's race, that could make it trickier for the McLarens to get close enough to try and overtake. Even with the DRS overtaking aid, Norris said the McLarens might be able to match Verstappen's higher top speed only on the straights, not reel him in.
Piastri said the conditions reminded him of qualifying at the Japanese GP in April, when Verstappen took pole. He kept both McLarens behind him in the race for his first win of 2025.
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Piastri has a 15-point lead over Norris, while Verstappen was third, 61 points off the lead.
Amid speculation over Verstappen's future, there was another sign of how much Red Bull relies on the four-time world champion as his teammate Yuki Tsunoda missed the top 10 for the sixth straight qualifying session. Tsunoda placed 12th and on Sunday will seek to end a run of four races without scoring a point.
Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli qualified seventh but has a three-place penalty for crashing into Verstappen on the opening lap of the Austrian GP last week, dealing a heavy blow to Verstappen's title challenge.
Haas rookie Oliver Bearman had an impressive pace to qualify eighth. It meant little because he already had a 10-place penalty after he crashed in the pits after speeding under a red flag in practice.
Franco Colapinto is under pressure with no points this season at Alpine and did himself no favors on Saturday by qualifying last with a spin and slide into the barriers which brought out the red flag.
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