» Hamilton storms to pole with lap record

The psychological advantage of racing on home soil was laid bare by Lewis Hamilton, who scorched the opposition in qualifying at the British Formula 1 Grand Prix to claim pole position.

He claimed provisional pole position with his first flying lap in Q3 by breaking the lap record, and then went even quicker on his second run to ram home his advantage and claim the 91st pole position of his career. Teammate Valtteri Bottas was second-fastest, missing a few vital tenths around the Silverstone Circuit that Hamilton has simply made his own in recent years.

The gap behind the ‘Black Arrows’ was simply vast – with over a second to the rest of the field it looks set to be a two-horse race on Sunday afternoon while the rest of the field squabbles for scraps. With the technical regulations and car designs essentially frozen, the Brackley squad will be very hard to beat until 2022.

While Hamilton may have made it look easy, he proved that he is indeed human with a rare error in Q2 when he looped his Mercedes at the exit of Luffied. He managed to rejoin the circuit, but by littering the width of the track with gravel he triggered a brief red flag interruption. He put this setback behind him to claim his third pole position of the season.

‘Best of the rest’ honours went to Max Verstappen, who pulled out all stops and outdrove his understeering Red Bull Racing Honda to the third-quickest time ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Lando Norris who was an impressive fifth-fastest.

Friday pacesetter Lance Stroll could manage no better than sixth in his Racing Point Mercedes, while stand-in teammate Nico Hülkenberg acquitted himself well and managed thirteenth-fastest in his first outing since last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Rounding out the top ten were McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr., the Renaults of Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon, and the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.

FORMULA 1 PIRELLI BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2020 – QUALIFYING
	Q3 Qualifiers	Team / Entry	Time	Gap
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11	1:24.303
2.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11	1:24.616	+ 0.313
3.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing RB16	1:25.325	+ 1.022
4.	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari SF1000	1:25.427	+ 1.124
5.	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team MCL35	1:25.782	+ 1.479
6.	Lance Stroll	Racing Point F1 Team RP20	1:25.839	+ 1.536
7.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren F1 Team MCL35	1:25.965	+ 1.662
8.	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team R.S.20	1:26.009	+ 1.706
9.	Esteban Ocon	Renault F1 Team R.S.20	1:26.209	+ 1.906
10.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF1000	1:26.339	+ 2.036
	Q2 Qualifiers	Team / Entry	Time	Gap*
11.	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01	1:26.501	+ 1.486
12.	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing RB16	1:26.545	+ 1.530
13.	Nico Hülkenberg	Racing Point F1 Team RP20	1:26.566	+ 1.551
14.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01	1:26.744	+ 1.729
15.	George Russell	Williams Racing FW43	1:27.092	+ 2.077
	Q1 Qualifiers	Team / Entry	Time	Gap**
16.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team VF-20	1:27.158	+ 1.357
17.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing C39	1:27.164	+ 1.363
18.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing C39	1:27.366	+ 1.565
19.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team VF-20	1:27.643	+ 1.842
20.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Racing FW43	1:27.705	+ 1.904