Silverstone in ecstasy as Lewis Hamilton grabs British GP sprint pole

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Lewis Hamilton delighted the home crowd with sprint pole for Ferrari at Silverstone - Andrew Boyers/Reuters

If this year’s British Grand Prix weekend carries on like this, we could be in for something truly special.

Lewis Hamilton sent Silverstone’s packed grandstands into raptures on Friday by claiming a stunning pole for Saturday’s sprint race.

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Race organisers are expecting an all-time Formula One record crowd of 565,000 fans over the course of the weekend, with about 150,000 turning up on Friday. They could not have asked for a better storyline.

Hamilton, who thrust himself into title contention with his maiden victory for Ferrari in Spain last month, is hoping for what would be a record-breaking 10th win at his home race. And the 41-year-old seven-time world champion had the perfect opening day, topping practice and then edging Mercedes’ championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 0.011sec in sprint qualifying.

Hamilton holds the record for most wins at Silverstone in F1 - Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

Hamilton, who lies 46 points behind the Italian heading into the weekend, seemed shocked when the session ended. “Holy crap!” he exclaimed over his radio on his cool-down lap.

The Briton later admitted he had not been expecting to be in contention for the front row. But he added that he hoped it was a sign for the rest of the weekend.

“I think our [long-run] pace was good in practice,” he said. “We did a longish run in P1 – there wasn’t a lot of time – but our pace was good. We should have a good race tomorrow. I’ll do my best to keep them behind.”

Russell ‘very surprised’ by Ferrari pace

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Hamilton’s Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc will line up on the second row for Saturday’s sprint, which starts at midday.

Mercedes’ George Russell, who has also dragged himself back into title contention with a second place and a win at the last two races, was fifth, 0.346secs behind team-mate Antonelli.

“Story of the year, always on the back foot,” a disappointed Russell said. “Usually in Q3 I can make a step but today it wasn’t the case. We need to understand why that is.”

George Russell is currently 40 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli - Jayce Illman/Getty Images

The Briton added that he was “very surprised” by the pace of Ferrari.

“They have been on the back foot with the PU [power unit] and energy management and today they look the best,” he said. “We’ve always known they have a great chassis. Some things are not quite making sense. Ferrari have had the upper hand all day.”

Russell’s comment about things “not quite making sense” may be a veiled reference to Ferrari’s recent spate of upgrades. Both Russell and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff have spoken recently about the number and speed of upgrades emanating from Maranello, with Wolff seemingly questioning whether it was possible within the budget cap.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur admitted he had been unimpressed with those comments. “I found it quite ironic from Toto, coming from Toto and Mercedes,” he said in Friday’s press conference.

“When Red Bull is developing, or when Mercedes is developing, they are genius. When we are developing, we are cheating.

“I think you have to calm down with this. We didn’t bring more parts than Red Bull or another one. I don’t know if it was a joke, but…”

Silverstone’s fans will not care if it means another British GP win for Lewis Hamilton this weekend.

05:43pm

Well that is set up nicely for the rest of the weekend

Here are the session times for the res tof the weekend. 

Saturday, July 4
Sprint race – Noon
Qualifying – 4pm

Sunday, July 5
Race – 3pm

05:25pm

Hamilton celebrates

Darko Bandic/AP

Plenty of work to do to deliver a sprint win and then do well in qualifying but it is a good start to the weekend. I believe him when he says he did not expect to be this competitive. Not sure what has happened to Russell. Another head-scratching session but he just did not look to have the pace, finishing 0.357sec off Hamilton and a similar amount from Antonelli. 

05:22pm

Hamilton reacts to sprint pole

“OK. I love this place, I love this crowd and I can’t express to you how big a dream it is and still to this day,... when you think about every corner and the flow you can get into this place if you get the set-up right. The car has felt really great today. We brought tiny little bits here... everyone has pushed to the max. I am really grateful to get pole. I was quick through all the session, but it was only 10 milliseconds.

“The team really deserves it. We are ahead of the Mercedes, and the Red Bulls, they have so much power this weekend. My team just won’t let up, they keep pushing and that is what I am so proud of. We didn’t expect coming to Silverstone that we would be competing for the front row. This is an amazing surprise, I am ecstatic.”

05:18pm

Work to do for Russell...

He was closer to the Racing Bulls of Lawson than he was to the pole-sitter or even his team-mate. 

05:17pm

SQ3 - Classification

  1. HAM 1:28.376
  2. ANT +0.011
  3. VER +0.321
  4. LEC +0.327
  5. RUS +0.357
  6. NOR +0.364
  7. PIA +0.396
  8. HAD +0.459
  9. LAW +0.551
  10. LIN +0.991
05:16pm

LEWIS HAMILTON TAKES SPRINT POLE!

The crowd love it, and so does Hamilton.

“Great job, great job,” he says. Not much in it, but he did it. Russell only fifth behind Antonelli, Verstappen and Leclerc too.

05:15pm

AQ3 - A decent lap for Leclerc, in second...

...but an ever better lap for Hamilton, who pips Antonelli by 0.011sec!

Russell cannot beat it, Verstappen cannot beat it... Hadjar cannot beat it!

05:14pm

SQ3 - It’s a 1:28.772 for Piastri

Norris beats that by less than a tenth. Lawson cannot beat it. 

Antonelli does beat it! Over to Hamilton...

05:14pm

SQ3 - It’s a 28.186 for Piastri

Norris cannot beat that... Antonelli does, just about. Leclerc a little down on that but Ferrari strong in the final sector here. 

05:12pm

SQ3 - Here we go

Cars on track. All of them! Hamilton has been the man to beat so far today, so let’s see if he can back that up again. Fresh soft tyres for everyone. 

05:09pm

🟢SQ3 is go!

No runners on track early on, though... good news for Norris. 

05:06pm

Work ongoing on Norris’s car

Zac Brown believes he might be out five minutes late to the session. He lost a piece of bodywork over a kerb in SQ1. 

05:02pm

⏱️SQ2 - Classification

  1. HAM 1:28.747
  2. ANT +0.099
  3. LEC +0.175
  4. LAW +0.320
  5. PIA +0.373
  6. VER +0.495
  7. RUS +0.499
  8. HAD +0.533
  9. LIN +0.583
  10. NOR +0.654
05:00pm

🏁SQ2 ends - Looks like Norris is safe too

Only just: 10th.

Drivers out: GAS, BOR, HUL, COL, SAI, ALB

04:59pm

SQ2 - Russell is improving

But it doesn’t look rapid at the moment. Leclerc struggling to improve after two sectors... but stays third after three. 

Russell should improve here... he does, but only seventh, half a second off the fastest time. 

Time to find. 

04:58pm

SQ2 - Decent lap from Lawson

He moves into fourth, 0.320sec off the pace. Shows track evolution is strong. Russell is 10th and Norris is ninth. Neither driver is safe... lots of pressure on Russell here.

04:56pm

SQ2 - It’s close at the front

Hamilton’s good form continues. He goes faster than his team-mate but Antonelli cannot beat him. Only 0.099sec away. Russell goes a baffling eighth. Didn’t see much of his lap but he is 0.727sec down on the fastest lap of the session. 

Here is the top 10 as it stands: 

  1. HAM
  2. ANT +0.099
  3. LEC +0.175
  4. PIA +0.373
  5. VER +0.495
  6. HAD +0.533
  7. NOR +0.654
  8. RUS +0.727
  9. BOR +0.932
  10. HUL +0.982

DROP ZONE: SAI, ALB, LAW, GAS, LIN, COL

04:53pm

SQ2 - Verstappen with a 1:29.242

Can Norris beat that? Nope. 0.159sec behind, with Hadjar in second ahead of him. 

04:50pm

🟢SQ2 begins!

Zac Brown says Norris has lost a part of his front brake ducts which is losing him some downforce... it cannot be repaired in time for this session and says it will cost him “quite a bit of lap time”. 

12 minutes, 10 drivers go through and six are eliminated. 

04:49pm

Quite a bit slower than qualifying last year...

...pole then was a 1:24.892. 

SQ2 about to start with all drivers on the medium tyres. 

04:45pm

⏱️SQ1 - Classification

  1. HAM 1:29.273
  2. LEC +0.107
  3. HAD +0.197
  4. PIA +0.310
  5. RUS +0.402
  6. VER +0.416
  7. ANT +0.473
  8. LAW +0.577
  9. HUL +0.834
  10. NOR +0.869
  11. BOR +1.134
  12. GAS +1.171
  13. LIN +1.180
  14. ALB +1.506
  15. COL +1.621
  16. SAI +1.800
04:44pm

SQ1 - Drivers out

BEA, OCO, PER, BOT, ALO, STR

04:43pm

SQ1 - Bearman moves into 15th

Is that going to be enough? Stroll stays last. Both Williams cars could knock out Bearman. Sainz knocks him down one place. Can Albon move him down another and out? Yes... hard lines for Bearman. He is out!

04:42pm

SQ1 - Final runs under way

Russell is on another hot lap. Mercedes could do with finding some pace by the looks of it. Russell ninth and Antonelli fifth. Can Russell improve? Yes, into fifth but 0.4sec away from the fastest time.

In the drop zone are the two Haas cars, the two Cadillacs and the two Aston Martins. 

Verstappen posts the fastest middle sector but is only sixth. 

04:39pm

SQ1 - Four mins remain

Drivers in the drop zone: ALO, STR, BOT, PER, OCO

No time set from either of the Aston Martins. Leclerc improves and goes fastest of all, but only momentarily as he is beaten by team-mate Hamilton again. 

04:37pm

SQ1 - Decent from Verstappen

Not brilliant, but fourth and within a few tenths of the fastest time. Isack Hadjar, though, beats them all with a fine lap, 0.112sec faster than Hamilton. 

Hadjar has had a strong start to life at Red Bull. Has not been overwhelmed by Verstappen and has largely been within touching distance (a couple of tenths) of the successful Dutchman. 

04:35pm

SQ1 - First runs under way

Bearman takes a few turns of the wheel to get around Luffield, a corner that seems to go on forever. A difficult season so far for Haas, despite a strong start. Bearman has certainly been the better of the two drivers within the team, though. 

He pops to the top of the timesheets with a 1:31.416, but Antonelli beats that by almost 1.6sec. Into the 1:29s for the Italian, Russell cannot beat that, trailing by a third of a second. Leclerc beats them both, however and Hamilton then goes faster than his team-mate. 

Everyone on the medium tyres at the moment, as is mandated. 

04:31pm

🟢GREEN LIGHT - SQ1 is go!

12 minutes, 16 drivers to go through and six to be eliminated.

04:28pm

Conditions

It has warmed up a little since FP1. Air temperature up to 25.1C and track temperature at 43.2. Not exactly roasting, but toasty. 

04:18pm

Not looking like too strong a weekend for McLaren...

Piastri had this moment in FP1 and both he and Norris were well off the pace. 

What a difference a year makes, eh? Well, and some new regulations. 

04:11pm

Past British Grand Prix winners

Fair to say that this is a Lewis Hamilton track. 

04:04pm

How does each team shape up in qualifying so far?

The gaps are closing down slightly, but they are still fairly large, especially once you get to the bottom of the field. Cadillac can be excused somewhat given they are a new team, but there are surely no excuses left for Aston Martin. 

03:53pm

Current qualifying head to heads

Some tight battles in there but several are one-sided. I am slightly surprised by Albon’s performance so far this year, but the actual gap between him and Sainz (in time rather than outcome) is closer. Still a long way from where he was at this point last season. Williams are in a far worse position, but so is he.

03:51pm

Welcome back...

Sprint qualifying takes place at 4.30pm BST to set the grid for tomorrow’s sprint race. Hamilton was the man to beat in FP1 earlier today but his team principal Frederic Vasseur, pointed out that this performance was perhaps not as meaningful as it looked. He could well be right. 

03:45pm

FP1 recap: Lewis Hamilton tops first British Grand Prix practice, George Russell fourth

Lewis Hamilton put in a strong showing in first practice for this weekend’s British Grand Prix. In the only practice session on a sprint weekend, the Ferrari driver was 0.213sec faster than championship leader Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes. 

Antonelli’s team-mate, George Russell, who won last week in Austria, was nearly 0.7sec off Hamilton’s pace in fourth, just behind the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. 

Lando Norris, the defending champion and last year’s winner at Silverstone, was seventh, more than a second off the pace. 

01:44pm

A bit of a strange session?

I would be surprised if sprint qualifying finished quite so stretched and in similar order, but it is good to see Ferrari competitive. Or at least appear competitive. Most of the other front-runners have work to do. 

Sprint qualifying begins at 4.30pm BST and we will return for that a little after 3.30pm. 

01:33pm

⏱️FP1 - Classification

  1. HAM 1:29.260
  2. ANT +0.213
  3. LEC +0.599
  4. RUS +0.678
  5. PIA +0.887
  6. VER +0.980
  7. NOR +1.028
  8. HAD +1.078
  9. HUL +1.483
  10. LAW +1.590
  11. COL +1.706
  12. BOR +1.775
  13. LIN +2.079
  14. BEA +2.113
  15. SAI +2.424
  16. OCO +2.424
  17. ALB +2.437
  18. BOT +2.890
  19. PER +2.981
  20. ALO +3.697
  21. GAS +3.759
  22. STR +3.870
01:31pm

🏁FP1 ends - Hamilton fastest

Verstappen has another lap but does not improve his lap time. 

01:30pm

FP1 - No further investigation on the Lawson/Hulkenberg incident

Fair enough, annoying but not really worth a penalty for either driver from what I saw. 

01:28pm

FP1 - Into the final few minutes

Aston Martin very much back to the bottom, both cars around 3.6-3.8sec off the pace, though with Gasly between them. 

01:27pm

FP1 - A long way off from Verstappen

Nearly a second, in fact. In fairness, the times are slightly stretched...

  1. HAM 1:29.260
  2. ANT +0.213
  3. LEC +0.599
  4. RUS +0.678
  5. PIA +0.887
  6. VER +0.980
  7. NOR +1.028
  8. HAD +1.078
  9. HUL +1.503
  10. LAW +1.590
01:24pm

FP1 - Hamilton back to the top

Encouraging from Hamilton after two sectors. Within a tenth of Antonelli. How is his final sector? Very good! Fastest of anyone, and it puts him fastest, 0.213sec ahead of Antonelli.

Verstappen begins his fast lap on the softs.

01:21pm

FP1 - Mercedes show good pace on the softs

Russell goes fastest momentarily before being beaten by almost half a second by team-mate Antonelli...

Andrew Boyers/Reuters

Defending world champion Norris, meanwhile, can only manage fifth, 0.865sec off Antonelli’s fastest time. Time to see what the Ferraris have got on these red-marked tyres. 

01:20pm

FP1 - Here come some drivers on soft tyres

Piastri looking to move well up the order here. Verstappen escapes any investigation for the potential yellow-flag infringement. 

Piastri moves fastest. How close to first position can he stay in the final 10 minutes?

01:18pm

FP1 - Incident between Hulkenberg and Lawson noted

Unclear whether it will be investigated by the stewards. Another incident that has been noted is a yellow-flag infringement by Max Verstappen. 

01:16pm

FP1 - Into the final 15 minutes

We could do with a few more drivers setting lap times on soft tyres, or at least not hard tyres. Hamilton still leads the way from Antonelli, Lawson (mediums), Hadjar, Russell, Leclerc, Verstappen and Piastri. 

01:14pm

FP1 - Nice action on the track

Hulkenberg and Lawson do a little dance around the corners at the start of the track. Lawson not happy about being overtaken around the outside heading onto the Wellington straight. 

“What the f--- is that? That’s crazy,” he says. Hulkenberg had just come out of the pits and got right in his way. He didn’t really try to get out of the way. 

01:07pm

FP1 - Yellow flags...

Why? Piastri spins after losing the rear end in the Maggots/Becketts complex. He keeps it out of the barriers, crucually. He then gets back to the pit lane. Currently seventh and nearly 0.8sec off Hamilton’s fastest time. Says the tyres are gone. If they weren’t before, they are now.

At the bottom end of the table Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll are no longer propping up the table, but they have just done their best laps on soft tyres. So that explains that.

01:05pm

FP1 - Hamilton moves top

Roughly a quarter of a second faster than Antonelli. All the laps so far done on the hard tyres, will be interesting to see what happens when they bolt on another compound. 

Here is the top 10 as it stands: 

  1. HAM 1:30.521
  2. ANT +0.256
  3. HAD +0.448
  4. RUS +0.465
  5. LEC +0.480
  6. VER +0.756
  7. PIA +0.793
  8. NOR +1.054
  9. BOR +1.292
  10. LAW +1.293
01:01pm

FP1 - Norris not really hooking it up so far today

His fastest time is nearly 0.8sec off Antonelli’s ultimate pace. He is in eighth place. McLaren, in general around the third fastest team at most weekends. Miami was promising but they have since been overhauled by Ferrari.

Leclerc, who is having a bit of a tough season, doesn’t look likely to improve his time on his latest lap, though he strings together a final sector that is good enough to put him fourth, around 0.2sec off Antonelli’s pace and ahead of Hamilton.

Andy Hone/LAT Images12:57pm

FP1 - Brit watch

Russell in third, Hamilton in fourth, Norris in eighth, Lindblad in 12th, Bearman in 13th and Albon (if you count him), in 17th. 

12:56pm

FP1 - 35 mins remain

Aston Martin and Cadillac are adrift at the bottom of the timesheets. Far more excusable for the Americans than the British brand. Stroll 4.3sec slower than Antonelli’s fastest time, however, he has just done his fastest first sector... perhaps let’s not get too excited about that. 

12:54pm

FP1 - Can Hamilton improve?

Looks like a tidy finish the the lap, but he moves up from seventh to fourth, 0.424sec off the pace. Lost a bit more time in the final sector. Ferrari are not too optimistic about their hopes this weekend, but you never know. 

12:51pm

FP1 - Plenty of lap times being deleted

Perez, Antonelli, Leclerc the latest. None of them, though, were push laps. 

Anyway, Hadjar leads Antonelli but is improving on his next flying lap. Second, can he improve? Yes. Now nearly two tenths faster than Hadjar. 

12:49pm

What do we think of McLaren’s special livery?

Steven Tee/LAT Images

Not sure. Looks a little like a Caterham. 

12:47pm

FP1 - Hadjar back at the top

Here is the top 10:

  1. HAD 1:30.969
  2. ANT +0.007
  3. VER +0.308
  4. PIA +0.345
  5. LEC +0.358
  6. HAM +0.465
  7. NOR +0.626
  8. LAW +0.845
  9. RUS +0.853
  10. BOR +1.047
12:44pm

FP1 - Verstappen now leads the way

It’s a 1:31.277, currently 0.037sec faster than Piastri. Most, if not all, of the runs have been on the hard tyres. Norris had briefly moved up to fifth but has had that time deleted now for track limits at turn nine. 

Steven Tee/LAT Images12:41pm

FP1 - Hadjar leads the way

His time of 1:31.697 is 0.109sec faster than Antonelli with Piastri, Hamilton and Norris next up. 

12:38pm

FP1 - Norris is currently bottom

Not a representative time yet, though. Fifty-eight seconds off the pace. 

12:36pm

FP1 - Antonelli moves ahead of the pack

0.294sec faster than Piastri as it stands, then Hadjar, Norris, Lawson and Leclerc. 

12:34pm

FP1 - Hamilton out on track

He will be one of the first drivers to set a lap time. What will it be? A 1:34.696 which is slower than Nico Hulkenberg’s Audi at the moment. 

12:29pm

FP1 is go!

We are under way at Silverstone. 

12:15pm

A nice moment for Arvid Lindblad

He is having an impressive debut season, closely matching Lawson in the season so far and scoring a handful of points already.

12:08pm

A big old festival feel to this weekend at Silverstone

Not only is it a sprint weekend, which makes Friday more interesting, the organisers expect a weekend crowd in excess of 550,000. Even yesterday the site was pretty busy, with various things going on. 

David Davies/PA

Silverstone has been turned into the Glastonbury of motorsport, writes Tom Cary, looking at the transformation of this race over the past couple of decades. 

12:03pm

Constructor standings

It is nice that Mercedes are no longer the only team to win a grand prix this year, but hard to see them being overhauled on current form. 

11:52am

Conditions at the track

It is likely to be a decent and dry weekend at Silverstone as it stands. A little under 40 minutes until FP1 gets going and the air temperature is around 20.2C and the track 35.2C. A light breeze but nothing like yesterday. Nothing to concern anyone, in short. 

Remember it is only one practice session before we get into the competitive action, so it is crucial than the drivers and teams learn about how these new-regulation cars perform on this circuit. 

11:46am

Driver standings

This is after eight of 22 rounds or, in 40.9 per cent of the season...

A long way to go yet, but Russell could do with another win to eat into team-mate Antonelli’s lead a little more. 

11:39am

Session times for the weekend

Friday, July 3
FP1 – 12.30pm BST
Sprint qualifying – 4.30pm

Saturday, July 4
Sprint race – Noon
Qualifying – 4pm

Sunday, July 5
Race – 3pm

11:35am

Good morning

Welcome to our live coverage for the Friday of the 2026 British Grand Prix. For the first time in a while (well, the first time since 2021, in fact), Silverstone hosts a sprint weekend. 

What does that mean? Well, today we have first (and only) practice, followed by sprint qualifying later this afternoon. Then comes the sprint race tomorrow morning, followed by main qualifying and then, as usual, the British Grand Prix on Sunday. 

This is normally a race of much excitement and anticipation, but before this race there has been an awful lot of complaining that borders on whinging. My colleague Thom Gibbs pondered in his SportsDay e-mail newsletter on this issue this morning. 

“It is rare for a race weekend to pass without Max Verstappen threatening to flounce out and start a new life in the Flemish countryside because there is too much electricity and not enough petrol in his engine, or something,” Thom writes. “Yesterday, we had Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso claiming that the sport’s new rules could ruin Silverstone.”

Clive Mason/Getty Images

“Alonso predicted the weekend could be ‘quite sad’ and Hamilton, bottom lip surely trembling, said, ‘it’s not going to feel the same’ and that he is still angry that he didn’t get enough sweeties. Hamilton is also embroiled in an objectively hilarious row about his participation in a Lego race this weekend in which cars made of 28,000 Lego bricks each drive around the circuit. Very, very slowly.”

It is a little bit poor, I have to say. Yes, there is an ever-increasing amount of commitments they have to undertake. But, come on guys, they are just trying to make the painfully dull drivers’ parade a little bit more interesting than drivers being driven around on branded flat-bed trucks and asked the usual questions they are asked before every single race of their lives. 

I have more sympathy for the argument about the new regulations neutering the challenge of Silverstone, but I guess a more sympathetic way to look at it would be describing it as challenging in another way. It is not ideal but it is what we are stuck with, so they will all just have to get on with it. 

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