Rain or no rain, Silverstone looked like Max Verstappen's. The championship leader controlled the action until the end, but then Carlos Sainz came along, took the jam and took pole
It even seemed arranged. The rain was not only present in the qualifying session of the British GP, held late this morning (2): it arrived right at the time of the grid definition. And it came heavy, with wind and plenty of water to open Q1. Navigating between different track conditions throughout the hour, Max Verstappen seemed destined for pole-position at Silverstone. But Carlos Sainz's final lap was nothing short of astounding and unseated the championship leader.
As conditions have changed, only one thing has remained constant: Verstappen is the one controlling the action of the British GP weekend. The Red Bull driver always had an answer to give each time someone managed to take the first position momentarily. The advantage for the Energy team was palpable until the last lap of Q3. It was only then that Verstappen bled. Sainz flew out and did an unbeatable lap to take the position of honor at the birthplace of F1.
The rain may have improved at the end of Q1, but it got worse again and increased greatly in the latter part of Q2. It was, if you'll pardon the expression, the perfect storm for Nicholas Latifi to have one of the shiniest moments of his Formula 1 career. So what if the Canadian's spot at Williams is in jeopardy? Today, it doesn't matter. Latifi made it past Q1 while Alexander Albon, who had all the Williams upgrades, was eliminated. If that wasn't enough, he improved his lap in Q2 when the rain was already becoming dramatic and went to Q3. Tomorrow is another day, but Saturday belongs to Nicholas, who starts in 10th place.
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Check out how the standings went:
Q1 - Verstappen rules even on wet track, Latifi passes and Vettel stays
The track was clean throughout the day. No water, no rain, and even some sun between the clouds. So it was for the F1 TL3, the F3 sprint race, and the W Series race. Until, with less than five minutes to go until the opening of the pit-lane for qualifying, a lot of rain at Silverstone. The water came, as expected!
But there was no delay. At the appointed time, the pit-lane opened and intermediate tires were put on the cars for the start of qualifying, as the teams expected the rain to last only through Q1.
A line appeared at the exit of the pit-lane: everyone wanted to take advantage of the track before it rained long enough to do more and more damage to the possibility of speed. Alpine was the only team that, betting on the end of the rain, stayed in the pits. Sebastian Vettel even brought his Aston Martin to the track, but gave up and came back while Lance Stroll decided to stay.
In the water, Charles Leclerc got the better of the first attempt. The Ferrari driver ran in 1min42s129 and placed 0s6 ahead of Sergio Pérez in second and Max Verstappen in third. Lando Norris was fourth, while George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were next in line.
With eight minutes to go in Q1, McLaren assured Norris that the rain had already let up and would soon stop. That was also when Vettel and the Fernando Alonso/Esteban Ocon duo understood that it was necessary to get out and get on the timesheet or elimination was certain. Vettel couldn't get out of harm's way initially, but Alonso and Ocon made it into the top-10.
Verstappen showed his strength on intermediate tires and put 1min40s452 on the clock to take the lead in the final minutes, but still had time for more fast lap ahead. The rain stopped, and Vettel was able to move out of last place and jump up to tenth.
The traffic out of and into the elimination zone would not stop. Yuki Tsunoda went out, but appeared on the line again moments later - Vettel again appeared inside. At the front, Verstappen was going 1min39s975 and saw Hamilton jump into second, with Sainz in third. With the clock ticking down, Leclerc changed everything and took the lead by about five seconds. Max added 1min39s129 and put 0s7 on the Ferrari driver.
In the race to get out of the elimination, Williams, which started the weekend all excited about the updates and talking about Q3, managed to advance with one of the drivers. And it is not what the reader is thinking: Nicholas Latifi got 15th and passed. Latifi in the rain! Alexander Albon was 16th and opened the eliminated list. The detail is that the news was only in Albon's car.
Behind him, the Haas and Aston Martin duos. Kevin Magnussen was 17th, Vettel followed, while Mick Schumacher and Lance Stroll closed the list. Even 0s8 better than his teammate, Vettel was off again and, warned, responded with a lament. "Not again, no... not again." But he was out.
Q2 -
Q2 - Rain regains strength and allows Latifi to shine. Verstappen leads again
Between the end of Q1 and the start of Q2, the rain picked up again and caused Mercedes to wait a little longer in the garage before taking the track. The other 13 cars wanted to go immediately to seek what would be, if the rain did not ease off in the next 15 minutes, the best grip on the track.
Guanyu Zhou was in the lead while only the middle group was on the clock, but Verstappen appeared to set a 1min41s486 and take the place that has been showing, since the early hours of the morning, to be rightfully his for the weekend at Silverstone.
The rain made the track worse, but Latifi shone brightly and found 1min43s273. Enough to beat Valtteri Bottas and take the tenth place that, with less than ten minutes to go, was worth a place in Q3.
Problem also for Sainz, who couldn't set a fast lap and was suffering with the 13th time, managed to take a lap out of his pocket and jump to the fourth place. Verstappen led with 1min40s655. Hamilton, Leclerc, Sainz, Russell, Norris, Alonso, Pérez, Zhou, and Latifi formed the top-10 with five minutes to go.
Thus, Gasly, Bottas, Tsunoda, Ricciardo, and Ocon, in this exact order, occupied positions 11 to 15, in the elimination zone. With the weather warning that the track would not improve before the end of Q2, the chances of this changing were getting smaller and smaller. Bottas tried, but warned: "I can't see. Ocon even went off the track. It was a dog-eat-dog race. Nothing changed until the end.
Q3 - Sainz defeats Verstappen and Red Bull to take pole
Everyone on intermediate tires for the beginning of the qualifying session. The rain continued and affected the track, although it was not heavy anymore. But Ferrari was warning Sainz on the radio: they were expecting a thunderstorm for the last moments of Q3. For Norris, McLaren added: they didn't know when the track would be better.
But everyone was on track. Zhou appeared at the top, but the expectation was the same as in Q2: Verstappen passing and taking the lead, but the reigning world champion spun, to the delight of the English fans. Luckily, he got around without major damage and went on.
The one who beat Zhou was Alonso. Did he have a chance to take pole? The track heated up, nobody stopped in the pits and, afraid of more rain, everyone kept going. Verstappen recovered and set a lap time of 1min42s996 to finally take the lead.
Hamilton was only 0s254s behind and was second, while Russell was third. Norris and Pérez were still ahead of Leclerc. For a short time, because Charles finally set a lap with just over 2min on the clock and went into second place.
The fight was good. Hamilton responded and, with a lap only 0s027 worse than Verstappen's, regained second place. Sainz was only eighth, ahead only of Zhou and Latifi. The Canadian had already dropped out of Q3 and was 20s9 behind.
In the final minute, however, Ferrari shone! Leclerc did 1min41s298 and was joined by Sainz to make the front row all Italian, but Verstappen responded and put in 1min41s055. He had time. Norris was up to third in an absolute madness.
Leclerc spun at his final attempt and was out of contention, but Sainz went to 1min40s983 and took the lead. And Verstappen? Out! With a bad intermediate sector, he stayed right in second.