Qualifying for the 2022 British Grand Prix takes place today at Silverstone, with a potential six-time battle for pole position.
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell hope to get on the road in their Mercedes and challenge both Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc for victory. Verstappen led Carlos Sainz across the finish line in Canada two weeks ago to emphasize his dominance of the F1 championship this year, but there is still plenty of time for Ferrari to get their problems out of the way and take on the Red Bull.
Fans are in on Silverstone as they always promise the chance of rain to shake things up, having completely washed out Friday’s first practice session before Hamilton clocked the second-best time in the afternoon, although Verstappen was dominant on Saturday morning was in training. Follow our live blog for the latest updates and news on qualifying for the British Grand Prix.
live updates
CHECKED FLAG!
Max Verstappen sets a serious marker with a half-second lead over his rivals by surpassing last practice.
Sergio Perez followed second in the other Red Bull, ahead of Leclerc, Russell, Hamilton and Sainz.
A very tight qualifying ahead, although challenging Verstappen for pole position does indeed seem like a mighty task.
Only Hamilton and Perez are now on the trail of the frontrunners, with that rain not coming as much of the pack stormed out earlier in the session.
However, this is where Verstappen comes in for the last two minutes.
Hamilton delivers the words no Mercedes boss wanted to hear: “The car bounced a lot.”
Interestingly enough, Russell hadn’t had the same issues before.
In the official Car Performance Rankings, Verstappen’s Red Bull is no less than four tenths faster than the Ferrari on the straights.
That’s basically the whole difference between them right now.
What can the other Red Bull do? Perez rushes across the line at a speed of 1:28.410 to finish second, four tenths behind Verstappen, but only a very small margin over Leclerc.
Shortly after, Russell improves slightly to move up to fourth above Hamilton.
Here Leclerc comes in with two personal best sectors before losing time in the final sector, only to get off Verstappen by just 0.002 seconds.
That may not matter, however, as the Red Bull will be launched on the back straight and break the top time of the day.
He does! That is a 1:27.901 and almost half a second better than his previous record. Wow.
Russell starts another flying lap as sparks fly as he rounds Copse, two tenths behind the second sector.
With 1:28.550 he puts him in third place as he takes some time back on Verstappen in the last part of the lap.
A bit of a lull on track as the final 20 minutes approach with teams making setup changes for the final runs.