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British Grand Prix Pole For Red Bull’s Max Verstappen As Lando Norris Puts McLaren On Front Row

By Robert Haile

Max Verstappen left it late to claim pole position for the British Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver claimed his 28th career pole and fifth in a row as he broke British and McLaren fans hearts as he piped Lando Norris to the top spot.

The usually Papaya coloured McLaren threw it back with a chrome livery as the team celebrates their 60th year racing.

All eyes will be on the current World Champion and can McLaren do something other has done so far and beat Red Bull.

Pole position qualifier (centre) Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing, Second placed qualifier (left) Lando Norris of Great Britain and McLaren and Third placed qualifier (right) Oscar Piastri of Australia and McLaren (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Topping the timing sheet after the first round of laps Verstappen led with Hamilton and Piastri in third.

In the final lap of qualifying McLaren’s Norris took pole before Verstappen the penultimate driver over the line took it back.

Piastri took third with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz behind him.

Mercedes George Russell and Lewis Hamilton came in sixth and seventh with Alex Albon continuing his good form with eighth for Williams.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly completed the top ten.

Early spin the first qualifying session for Hamilton put pressure on the Mercedes driver as Williams’ Logan Sargeant reported rain that didn’t appear.

Kevin Magnussen’s Haas ground to a halt at turn 3 just in front of the pit lane entrance and with 3 minutes left of the first qualifying session left it brought out the red flag.

All the remaining cars came out with both Williams and Alfa Romeo drivers at that point joining Magnussen.

All four found laps with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu dropped back into the elimination zone as both AlphaTauri’s and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez missing out by 0.019 seconds as Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo stopped off the track after the checkered flag.

With the track drying even more from the first session any of the drivers could make it through to the top ten shootout.

Bottas didn’t come out having stopped at the end of the first session was joined by Williams Sargeant who had a lap time deleted.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg all dropped out in the flurry of final laps.

The British Grand Prix race starts at 2pm (14:00) in the UK on Sunday, July 9.

British Grand Prix Qualifying

  1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
  2. Lando Norris (McLaren)
  3. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
  4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
  5. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
  6. George Russell (Mercedes)
  7. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
  8. Alex Albon (Williams)
  9. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
  10. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
  11. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
  12. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
  13. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
  14. Logan Sargeant (Williams)
  15. Vallteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
  16. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
  17. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
  18. Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)
  19. Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri)
  20. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)