Motorsport
Formula 1 has come home! Did Verstappen manage to take pole position at Silverstone? And which team took everyone’s breath away with their performance?
The Formula One World Championship is heading to a place it can call home for its eleventh round of the 2023 season. At Silverstone, set on a former airfield, it all began on 13 May 1950. This year’s championship champion Max Verstappen wanted to record his fifth pole position in a row here.
The Formula One World Championship is heading to a place it can call home for its eleventh round of the 2023 season. At Silverstone, set on a former airfield, it all began on 13 May 1950. This year’s championship champion Max Verstappen was looking to record his fifth pole position in a row here. How did he and the other nineteen drivers manage to qualify on the nearly six-kilometre track?
The first part of qualifying (Q1)
Threatening clouds hovered over the circuit, threatening unexpected showers from the moment qualifying began. Rain had sprinkled the track during Saturday, but the drivers decided to start Q1 on dry tyres only.
The reduced level of grip caught up with home favourite Lewis Hamilton. the 38-year-old Briton spun on the approach to Stowe corner and was almost caught in a duck. Williams driver Logan Sargeant reported drops on the team radio. At the same time, the drivers were intent on taking advantage of the conditions to get in some quick dry laps as soon as possible.
A lot of drivers were struggling with their cars, especially in sector three around where Hamilton got the clock. Williams’ promising performances from practice sessions came to naught when neither Sargeant nor teammate Alexander Albon could set competitive times in the challenging conditions. Together with both Alfa Romeo drivers and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, they were in the last, non-advancing, five positions with a few minutes to go in Q1.
Magnussen, whose retirement from qualifying brought out red flags, stopped on track with three minutes to go. During the aborted qualifying session, two-time world champion Verstappen surprised right in the pits. He crashed lightly into a low wall and broke his front wing as he entered the queue of cars waiting for the restart. The Dutchman complained on the radio about understeer and lack of grip.
Moments later, the non-Magnussen pilots set off on their final fast laps, believing no more rain. On the contrary, the quality of the tarmac had increased enormously and in the final moments of Q1 the order shifted incredibly quickly.
The chaotic end to Q1 brought another shock when Sergio Pérez set a mere 16th fastest time on the red bull. The Mexican thus missed out on the last part of qualifying for the fifth time in a row, which should have been a given for him given his team’s dominance. With Pérez, both Alpha Tauri drivers Yuki Cunoda and Nyck de Vries, Alpha Romeo’s Kuan-yu Zhou and the aforementioned Magnussen dropped out of the next round.
The second part of qualifying (Q2)
Valtteri Bottas did not make it to Q2, who, like Magnussen, suffered technical difficulties. The rain drama at Silverstone continued. Engineers from various teams reported different forecasts to their drivers regarding further possible showers.
The drying track allowed a mixed field with Lando Norris in provisional first place with ten minutes to go in Q2. A large number of drivers then rotated into the lead in the following minutes. It was therefore impossible to clearly predict how this segment would turn out and it was clear that everything would be decided in the very final seconds.
However, there was no further rain during the second part of qualifying. Verstappen drove to a comfortable first place despite decent laps from other drivers. Those decent laps were set by Albon in the Williams and both McLaren drivers Norris and Oscar Piastri. Q3 awaited them while Nico Hülkenberg, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon along with Sargeant and Bottas remained in the Q2 grid.
The third part of qualifying (Q3)
The final segment of qualifying saw both Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren drivers make their way through on a completely dry Silverstone. Red Bull, Alpine, Aston Martin and Williams sent a single representative to Q3.
The first timed lap was set by George Russell in the Mercedes. However, moments later, Verstappen settled into the overall lead by a wide margin. Behind him, Hamilton, Piastri, Leclerc and Sainz rounded out the top 5 after the first few attempts.
The Ferrari cars were the first to go out for the second attempts. Neither Leclerc nor Sainz could match Verstappen’s times. The Ferraris were followed moments later by the Mercedes. But then came the McLaren. Norris burned the pond for all his rivals when he was momentarily in first position. All the fans and pundits’ chins dropped even more. Piastri was third, just one and a half tenths behind his teammate Norris.
Despite Verstappen taking pole position again a few seconds later, the biggest cheer from fans on and off the track went to McLaren, whose car was on the front row at the start for the first time since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.
Behind Verstappen and the McLarens, the Ferrari monoblocs will start Sunday’s British Grand Prix. Leclerc and Sainz occupy fourth and fifth positions respectively. Russell, Hamilton, Albon, Alonso and Gasly.
You can see the overall results of Saturday’s qualifying in the attached Twitter post below.
Source : F1
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