HAMILTON FASTEST ON INAUGURAL FRIDAY QUALIFYING

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton will start Formula 1’s first sprint qualifying race from the front of the grid after he beat Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen in Friday qualifying at the British Grand Prix. Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas will start third ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

In the opening phase of Q1 it was Verstappen who set the pace, with the Dutchman jumping to the top of the timesheet thanks to a lap of 1:16.751, despite a nervous moment in the final corner. That put the championship leader four tenths of a second ahead of Hamilton, with Bottas almost four tenths further back in third.

Verstappen stayed in the garage for the final run, but team-mate Sergio Pérez headed out for a second attempt as his opening time left him in P13 in the final moments of the segment. However, the Mexican put in an excellent final lap of 1:27.121 to jump to P4 at the flag, just behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Hamilton also went for a final run and his 1:26.786, just 0.015s slower than Verstappen showed that the session would be hard fought.

Eliminated at the end of Q1 were AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in P16 ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi and the Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and 20th-placed Nikita Mazepin.

Verstappen was again on top at the end of the opening run of Q2. Hamilton set the early benchmark with a lap of 1:26.602 but within moments Verstappen was across the line just under a tenth clear of the Mercedes driver. Bottas lay in third place after the first runs almost two tenths behind his Mercedes team-mate, while Pérez was fourth, two tenths further back.

On his final run of the session Hamilton lit up the timesheet with purple times in every sector and he took P1 with a time of 1:26.023. Verstappen improved too, but he settled for P2 with a final flyer of 1:26.315.

Ruled out at the end of the middle segment though were Alpine’s Fernando Alonso in P11 ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon, Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

Hamilton took P1 in the first run of Q3 thanks to a lap of 1:26.134, 0.172 ahead of Verstappen, who complained that his car was suffering from “oversteer to the moon”. The balance issues heaped pressure on the Dutchman in the final run and though Hamilton went wide in Sector 3 on his final flying lap, the Dutch driver couldn’t wrestle enough time out of his RB16B on his final flying lap and he was forced to settle for P2, between the two Mercedes cars.

Pérez’s final flyer put him into fourth place behind Bottas but the Mexican’s time was deleted for a track limits violation. That meant he was leapfrogged by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the Red Bull driver will start the Sprint at the front of row three, in fifth place.

Pérez will be joined on the third row of the grid by Lando Norris. The McLaren driver took sixth place just 0.002s ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. George Russell gave Williams hope of a good starting place for Sunday’s race by claiming seventh place on the Sprint grid, ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and the final top-10 place was taken by Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel.

BRITISH GRAND PRIX - QUALIFYING
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	1:26.134
2.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:26.209	+ 0.075
3.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	1:26.328	+ 0.194
4.	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:26.844	+ 0.694
5.	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	1:26.897	+ 0.710
6.	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:26.899	+ 0.763
7.	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	1:26.971	+ 0.765
8.	George Russell	Williams	1:27.143	+ 0.837
9.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:27.638	+ 0.873
10.	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	1:27.339	+ 1.045
Q2 Fastest Lap: Lewis Hamilton - 1:26.023
11.	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	1:27.245	+ 1.222
12.	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1:27.273	+ 1.250
13.	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:27.340	+ 1.317
14.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	1:27.617	+ 1.594
15.	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:27.665	+ 1.642
Q1 Fastest Lap: Макс Ферстапен - 1:26.751
16.	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1:28.043	+ 1.292
17.	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	1:28.062	+ 1.311
18.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	1:28.254	+ 1.503
19.	Mick Schumacher	Haas	1:28.738	+ 1.987
20.	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	1:29.051	+ 2.300
107% time: 1:32.823
HYBRID ERA - SILVERSTONE 2014 Nico Rosberg - Mercedes AMG - 1:35.766 2015 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:32.248 2016 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:29.287 2017 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:26.600 2018 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:25.892 2019 Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes AMG - 1:25.093 2020 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:24.303 70 ANNIVERSARY GRAND PRIX 2020 Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes AMG - 1:25.154 2021 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:26.134 @МкФормула1 - РЕПУБЛИКА МАКЕДОНИЈА @MkFormula1 - REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA