SILVERSTONE, United Kingdom – Lewis Hamilton overcame a spin to claim another Formula One pole on Saturday at the Silverstone Circuit for the British Grand Prix.
The pole, the 87th of Hamilton’s Formula One career, is the seventh of his career at the Silverstone Circuit ahead of his home Grand Prix.
In order to claim the pole, Hamilton had to overcome a spin during Q2. He recovered and, after a short red flag period to clean gravel off the track from his spin, Hamilton was able to regain his form and finished Q2 second behind his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Once Q3 began, Hamilton rocketed to the top of the charts via a fast lap of 1:24.303, which gave him the top spot for Sunday’s race over Bottas.
“This feeling never gets old, that’s for sure,” Hamilton said. “We made some changes to the car going into qualifying and it felt worse, so it was a real struggle out there in the first two sessions. At this track, there can be a headwind, tailwind and crosswind all at different parts of the circuit, so it’s like juggling balls whilst you are on a moving plate. Qualifying is a lot about building confidence and after that spin in Q2, I had to take some deep breaths, compose myself and mentally reset – especially knowing Valtteri was putting in fast lap after fast lap.
“Q3 started off well, the first lap was nice and clean, but the second one was even better. A big thank you to everyone at the team, working at the track and at the factories not far from here, for all their tireless work and continuing to push us forward. I’m really proud to be a part of it. It’s going to be strange racing out there tomorrow without any fans, we definitely miss them and it’s just a completely different energy. I know they’ll be watching from home and supporting us, so hopefully we can put on a good show for them.”
Max Verstappen continued to chase the Mercedes duo by qualifying third for Red Bull. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc put in a late fast lap to qualify fourth, with McLaren’s Lando Norris putting together another strong run to claim fifth.
Racing Point’s Lance Stroll timed in sixth, followed by McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr., Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
Nico Hulkenberg, making his return to Formula One in place of Racing Point’s Sergio Perez, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier this week, qualified 13th.