By Robert Haile
On a wet qualifying for the British Grand Prix Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz took his first pole position.
With the rain falling anything could happen around Silverstone and Sainz’s pole was one of lesser surprises after the Spanish driver almost claimed his first win in Monaco.
Pole sitter Sainz said: “I’m extremely happy today. Securing my first pole at Silverstone in the wet is something special that I will never forget.
“The whole qualifying was very tricky, and every lap was a new adventure because of the track conditions. Finding grip and traction was a huge challenge and every lap you had to adapt.
“On the very last attempt I went for it and managed to put a good lap together that gave us pole.
“The confidence for tomorrow is high and hopefully we can bring our good pace from Friday into the race. It will be a very tight battle with our competitors, but I’m ready for it and I’m sure we can put together a strong race and fight for the win. Let’s race.”
Starting just before the first qualifying session the rain began to fall and they say in F1 that it is a great equaliser.
In the first session it was disappointment for one of the home teams as Aston Martin’s duo made early exits with Sebastian Vettel in eighteenth and Lance Stroll in twentieth.
Haas also lost both drivers with Mick Schumacher in nineteenth and Kevin Magnussen in seventeenth.
This meant that Williams would have a driver in the second session but which one?
Alex Albon had the experience of making it into the next session with the Williams this season but not this time as Nicholas Latifi made it through for the first time in his career.
It was a guessing game for the engineers back in the garage trying to work out what would happen with the weather, it got worse throughout the session.
This gave those that had put down a good lap earlier in the session the advantage and Latifi was one of those as he made the final session for the first time.
It was not so lucky for Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda as both AlphaTauri drivers went out along with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and an under pressure Daniel Ricciardo, who made his debut here eleven years ago.
The pressure in the top ten shootout led to three drivers spinning but Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Nicholas Latifi all made it out of the nerve wrecking experience.
In Latifi’s first final session appearance he finished tenth behind Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu in ninth with George Russell’s Mercedes in eighth.
In seventh is Alpine’s Fernando Alonso with McLaren’s Lando Norris in sixth.
Lewis Hamilton might feel disappointed having been sat in second before the final laps where his Mercedes dropped to fifth as Sainz, Verstappen and Sergio Perez all improved.
At the front Red Bull and Ferrari will be fighting it out at the start with Sainz on pole and championship leader Verstappen next to him and Leclerc and Perez on the second row.
Everything is set for a fascinating race with Red Bull on a run, Ferrari looking to strike back while Sainz will be determined to take his first F1 win on his 150th start while Hamilton and Norris can’t be ruled out.
British Grand Prix Grid
- Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
- Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
- Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
- Lando Norris (McLaren)
- Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
- George Russell (Mercedes)
- Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)
- Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
- Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
- Vallteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
- Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
- Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
- Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
- Alex Albon (Williams)
- Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
- Sebastian Vettel (Aston Marin)
- Mick Schumacher (Haas)
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
THE HERDWICK NEWS 