The Mercedes star beats Max Verstappen in qualifying for the new sprint format in Great Britain.
Pole at the premiere: Hamilton starts in sprint format in front of a home crowd from first place
That was new – a qualifying on Friday. Not for the Grand Prix on Sunday, but for today's sprint race. Not new, but surprising: Lewis Hamilton was the fastest in his home race. The Mercedes driver will therefore start from pole position in today's sprint premiere. World Cup leader Max Verstappen had to be content with second place – and complained. “The car is good, but it understeers to the moon!”
On the other hand, the seven-time champion Hamilton was delighted with the sprint pole position in front of his home crowd. “We missed that for a whole year. To see the energy in the crowd. This [result] is up to the fans. I couldn't have done it without her. I'm so happy!”
🏁 END OF QUALIFYING 🏁
Hamilton
Verstappen
Bottas
Leclerc
Perez
Norris
Ricciardo
Russell
Sainz
Vettel #BritishGP 🇬🇧 # F1 pic.twitter.com/LotX1jaXkg
– Formula 1 (@ F1) July 16, 2021
It got exciting again at the very end because Hamilton made a mistake in the last sector. But Verstappen could not overtake the British with his Red Bull and ended up 75 thousandths behind. On the second row of the grid are Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) today. Williams driver George Russell made it into Q3 for the second time in a row, finishing eighth on the grid.
And the Silverstone crowd goes wild! 🙌 # BritishGP 🇬🇧 @LewisHamilton pic.twitter.com/K0at1gYJLY
– Formula 1 (@ F1) July 16, 2021
The sprint race will be held at Silverstone for the first time – and a lot is at stake. The result of the premiere is the starting grid for the Grand Prix on Sunday. The winner then gets the “correct” pole position – and gets three additional World Championship points. The second from the sprint can still look forward to two points, the third one.
