Stunning Lewis Hamilton smashes Silverstone lap record to grab British GP pole

British Grand Prix

Stunning Hamilton smashes Silverstone lap record to grab British GP pole

The Mercedes duo were streets ahead of their rivals

Ian Parkes

Saturday 1 August 2020 16:12

Lewis Hamilton smashed Silverstone's lap record en route to securing the 91st pole position of his Formula One career, and the seventh for the British Grand Prix.

Hamilton spearheaded another Mercedes one-two, with the duo on another planet compared to their rivals, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen a second adrift of the six-time F1 champion.

The 35-year-old overcome a spin in Q2, that sparked a red flag, to set the best two laps in qualifying during the top-10 shoot-out.

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After setting a new Silverstone best with his first flying run, Hamilton improved again on his second with a time of one minute 24.303secs, three-tenths of a second ahead of Bottas, and seven-tenths up on the Finn's previous lap record from last season's qualifying.

Verstappen did enough on his second run in Q3 to edge out an improving Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari, with McLaren's Lando Norris a superb fifth ahead of Racing Point's Lance Stroll.

Carlos Sainz in his McLaren will start seventh ahead of Renault duo Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon, with Sebastian Vettel at least making into the top 10, but starting 10th, notably after the time for his last run was deleted for exceeding track limits.

For Hamilton, it was a remarkable performance, especially after his first run in Q2 proved disastrous as the six-time winner of this race spun exiting Luffield, sending gravel across the track that forced a red flag to allow the marshals to clear.

Once the track re-opened, Hamilton had it to himself, emerging on a new set of the medium Pirellis and posting a time that was a third of a second behind pace-setting Bottas, but enough to secure his place in Q3.

With the clock ticking it then prompted a scramble from the rest of the field to join the Mercedes duo in the top 10, with some drivers opting for medium tyres, and others on the softs.

AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly was knocked out in the cruellest of circumstances as he set the same time at Stroll, but in doing so after the Canadian, he missed out on Q3 and will start 11th.

For the second successive race weekend, Alex Albon failed to make it out of Q2 and will start 12th in his Red Bull, a place ahead of Racing Point's Nico Hulkenberg, both of whom had strapped on the softs.

Hülkenberg, drafted in on Thursday after Sergio Perez tested positive for Covid-19, will be disappointed to miss out on a top-10 spot, particularly as he was on the far quicker rubber compared to team-mate Stroll.

Daniil Kvyat qualified 14th in his AlphaTauri but faces a five-place grid drop for a gearbox change, which could help elevate Williams' George Russell after he made it into Q2 for the third successive race.

Russell, though, faces a stewards' investigation for failing to slow for yellow flags at the end of Q1, ironically caused by a spin from team-mate Nicholas Latifi.

Around such a power-sensitive circuit, the Ferrari power unit customer teams were expected to struggle, and so it was no surprise that both Alfa Romeo and Haas cars were knocked out of Q1.

Kevin Magnussen qualified 16th ahead of Alfa duo Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen, and then Haas team-mate Romain Grosjean. All four will be elevated a grid slot courtesy of Kvyat's penalty.

Latifi will line up last in his Williams, with the Canadian's qualifying session compromised by a spin off track on his final flying attempt, bringing out the yellow flags that not only caused issues for his team-mate but led to a number of drivers aborting their runs.