SILVERSTONE: Max Verstappen outpaced both McLarens and the resurgent Ferraris to claim a spectacular pole position for Red Bull with a last-gasp lap in Saturday’s tense qualifying session for the British Grand Prix.

The four-time world champion delivered a best lap in one minute and 24.892 seconds to outpace championship leader Oscar Piastri of McLaren by 0.103 seconds with Lando Norris third in the second McLaren.

Mercedes’ George Russell was fourth, ahead of the Ferraris of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Kimi Antonelli was seventh in the second Mercedes, but faces a three-place grid penalty on Sunday following last week’s Austrian Grand Prix.

Ollie Bearman, who faces a 10-place grid penalty, was eighth for Haas ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

It was Verstappen’s third pole at Silverstone, where he has won twice before, and the 44th of his career.

“It was tricky out there with the wind. It was shifting around a bit,” said Verstappen, whose lap lifted him from two-tenths adrift to pole.

“This car is extremely sensitive to the wind and I tried to be tidy and the final lap was good enough.

“We’re quite quick on the straights,” the 27-year-old added. “Which is not that easy to manage in the high-speed corners. We’ll have to wait and see how that plays out in the race, if there’s rain or not.”

Piastri admitted he drove an imperfect final lap in which he ran wide and over kerbs.

“The first lap was mega,” he said. “I was trying to think of how I was going to go faster and I didn’t! The last lap was a little bit messy, but it has been tight all weekend. I left a bit on the table and the team did a great job.”

Norris said: “It was tough. We are not just fast enough today, but it’s all good fun and I am happy with third. Credit to Max, he did a great job.”

The session began with a strong wind and light rain following a busy break during which rookie Bearman was handed a 10-place grid penalty for crashing under red flags as he returned to the pits in FP3.

Sauber’s bright green cars were the first out as Gasly reported “some drizzle” to encourage the entire field to hurry on track. Verstappen soon went top with a marker in 1:26.041 before Piastri trimmed that by 0.039 seconds.

After 11 minutes, the session was red flagged when Franco Colapinto, under pressure to keep his seat, spun off at Club, recovering his Alpine from the barriers to limp back to the pits until he stopped on track.

After a 10-minute pause, the action resumed with six minutes remaining, Piastri leading the way on a set of new softs on a slippery damp surface that saw Verstappen improve and go top.

In a frantic dash to avoid the cut, Hamilton, under-fuelled by Ferrari, survived in 14th, but out went Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls, Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg in the second Sauber with Colapinto.

Verstappen was first out for Q2 to clock 1:25.316, a time repeated immediately by Piastri before Norris went top by 0.085 seconds while Ferrari failed to find their earlier pace with Hamilton 11th and Leclerc 13th.

On the second run, using new softs, Hamilton and Leclerc went top and second to relieve widespread anxiety as a bold Gasly secured 10th place to eliminate Williams’ Carlos Sainz, Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, Racing Bulls’ rookie Isack Hadjar, Williams’ Alex Albon and Haas’ Esteban Ocon.

Bearman, despite his penalty, finished sixth to join the top-ten Q3 shootout which started with Piastri leading the way, joined on the provisional front row by Hamilton.

Norris was third and Verstappen fourth.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2025