Lewis Hamilton claims Sprint pole on home weekend

Lewis Hamilton secured pole position for the Sprint at the British Grand Prix. The British driver was quicker than Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen. The Ferrari driver stopped the clock at 1’28″376, while the Italian recorded a 1’28″387. The seven-time world champion was also the driver able to set the fastest times of the day on all three compounds available.

As required by the regulations, drivers were mandated to use a set of Mediums in SQ1, a second set of Mediums in SQ2 and a set of Softs in SQ3. Among the ten drivers who reached the final session, all completed a three-lap stint on the softest compound.

Hamilton had already been quickest in the first free practice session, setting a time of 1’29″260 on Soft tyres. Earlier, he had completed 21 laps on the Hards, spread across three different stints, before returning to the C1 at the end of the session. Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc finished FP1 in second and third place respectively.

Ambient temperatures remained around 25°C, while track temperature peaked at 42°C during the first free practice session. Forecasts indicate similar weather conditions for Saturday and for Sunday’s race.

Lewis Hamilton – Sprint Pole

“It’s always special coming back to this track that I love so much, and taking pole for the Sprint here is a really special feeling. Huge thanks to the team for the job they’ve done today, and to all the fans in the grandstands… your support is something else.

Looking at the gap to Kimi (Antonelli), I’d like to think it was the fans’ energy that gave me that extra hundredth. We didn’t expect to be this competitive here, so a lot of credit has to go to everyone in team here and back at the factory who keep pushing and delivering improvements step by step. We’re making real progress, and that’s down to all the hard work going on behind the scenes. Our long-run pace looked solid too, though tomorrow will be a real challenge with how closely matched everyone is at the front.”

Dario Marrafuschi – Pirelli Motorsport Director

“The Silverstone weekend has got underway in line with expectations on the tyre front, while the home crowd enjoyed a welcome surprise thanks to a British favourite securing Sprint pole position. The first part of the sole hour of free practice allowed teams to become familiar with the C1, a compound that, prior to Silverstone, had only been used at Suzuka. The C2 and C3, on the other hand, were mainly used for performance runs, enabling teams to gather useful data ahead of the rest of the weekend.

In both of today’s sessions, degradation proved to be in line with our expectations, and the initial performance delta observed between Medium and Soft, at equal fuel loads, was around four tenths, approximately a tenth less than indicated by simulations. It will be interesting to see tomorrow which compounds come into play in the Sprint race, because, at this stage, even the Soft appears capable of being among the competitive options, particularly for those starting from the second half of the grid.”

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